Forbidden Love
by Air-and-water123
Summary: A mistake by the top spy of the Water Agency causes a rift between them and the Wind Agency, their former allies. When a problem arises that could mean the end of the world, each of the agencies send their top spies to stop it before it's too late, but the Winds have an added agenda. Their top spy is ordered to kill the betrayer, but what will they do when it's love at first sight?
1. First Assignment

Chapter 1: First Assignment

**Hey guys! Welcome to my new story "Forbidden Love"! Just a warning in advance, this story is going to involve espionage and fighting, so Aang will be more prone to violence and will likely kill other people. Anyway, thank you guys for reading, and I hope you enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

A knife landed inches from Aang's face as he walked into the room, making him scramble for cover as he avoided more sent his way. Knife after knife was thrown until it finally stopped while Aang breathed heavily, wondering what in the world was going on. "Sir! Why are you attacking me?" he asked in slight annoyance as he peeked over the edge of the table he had turned over, narrowly avoiding a knife that skimmed just above his head, taking a few locks of his jet black hair with it.

Gyatso stepped out of the shadow and brandished his knives. "You must be prepared for anything, my pupil. Being out in the field, you never know when someone is going to turn around and betray you." He threw another knife as Aang flipped backwards and watched as it lodged into the wall behind him, landing in the spot where his chest would have been had he not moved. "To prove you're ready to be a spy," Gyatso continued before he threw another knife which Aang caught, taking him by surprise. "You must prove that you can handle any situation, even the betrayal of your own master." Gyatso threw one more knife at him, but Aang batted it away with the other knife and pinned Gyatso against the wall with the knife to his throat. Finally satisfied, Gyatso let out a laugh. "You truly have improved since your first lesson, my Ward." Aang grinned and let Gyatso go who straightened out his ruffled up clothes.

"Well, I've had an excellent teacher," Aang told him with a smile while Gyatso laughed and put an arm around him as they walked out of the room. "It seems like only yesterday that I was deemed old enough to begin training."

"Twelve years passed in a day, huh?" Gyatso grinned mischievously, making Aang laugh as well.

"That's what it felt like, anyway," he admitted as they walked to a room filled with older gentleman sitting in a circle. "The Great Council," he bowed to them as Gyatso took his seat to the left of the center of the group.

The man in the center smiled at him. "Aang, you have done well since we first started training you, and with your Mentor's permission, will be made a full spy for the Winds of Fate." He turned to look at Gyatso. "Is he ready to fully join us, Gyatso?"

Gyatso nodded with a proud smile as he looked upon his student. "He is. Every lesson I've taught him, he has taken to heart and has learned it well. He is ready to become one of us."

"Good," the man in the center nodded before returning his attention to Aang. "Kneel, young one." Aang immediately dropped onto his knee and bowed his head, feeling the excitement of the moment course through his body as the man took out a sword from the agency's foundation. "Aang White, do you swear to do whatever it takes to protect the world from what we have deemed as harmful to it, even at the cost of your life?"

Aang nodded solemnly. "I do," he spoke quietly with authority apparent in his voice.

The man nodded again and put his sword over each shoulder and then over his head. "Then by the power vested in me and the council by our founders, I now name you, Aang White, as an official member of the Winds of Fate." He put the sword back and gestured to Aang. "Rise." Aang stood up and looked at the man. "You are now a Wind. May you blow a path to peace for the world to enjoy."

"Thank you," Aang bowed to him and then to each of the council members. Gyatso stood up from his seat and gestured for him to follow.

"Come, young one. We need to get you your gear. We have a special mission for you," Gyatso told him as they walked out of the room. Walking through a few hallways, Aang and Gyatso eventually made it to a set of armor at the end of the hallway with a hole in the center of the armor. Taking a deep breath, Gyatso brought his arms backward and shot them forward, shooting a strong gust of air into the armor which caused a rumbling in the room as it slowly slid open to reveal a pathway. "Come."

Aang followed him out to a room at the end of the passageway and was amazed at all of the technology in there. There was everything from pistols to suits of bulletproof armor, with some strange things he had no clue what they were as he gazed upon them. Gyatso led the way to a section of the room where a large amount of leather jackets hung on a rack of clothes. "When I was your age, we had a different kind of outfit for going out on missions, but as the times change, so must we," he said sagely as he gestured to the rack of jackets.

"Why leather jackets though?" Aang asked in bewilderment as he looked at them closely. "Isn't that a little… impractical?"

Gyatso chuckled as he shook his head. "It may seem that way, but there is a reason why we picked these for your outfits."

"And why is that?" Aang asked as he saw one with the symbol of their agency on top of the hood: a light blue swirl of air.

"Though the leather may be harder to move in," Gyatso admitted. "It provides more protection and makes concealing the bullet-proof part of it easier than any other material we have tried so far. Not to mention that if you're trying to blend in with a crowd, many young ones wear leather jackets in the winter."

"But what about if I have a mission in any other season?" Aang wondered.

Gyatso laughed a little. "Then I'm afraid you'll just look like what you young people call a 'Douchebag'."

Aang shrugged as he picked one out and put it on. "It shouldn't be a problem. It's not like I care about what other people think of me."

"Of course not," Gyatso grinned as he looked at his charge. "Anything else would have been going directly against our very motto. Do you remember what it is?"

Aang grinned back as he thought about it. "Nothing matters except the fate of the world."

"Exactly," Gyatso agreed as he straightened out Aang's jacket for him. "I know you will go on to do great things, young one. Your family was well-known for their brave acts throughout the agency.

Aang's grin dropped as he was reminded of his deceased family. "Yeah, at least that's what I've heard, anyway." He paused and looked to Gyatso. "What were they like before they died?"

Gyatso was silent for a few moments. "Your father was a strong and intelligent young man, but his pride often got in his own way," he finally said. "It was likely his pride which took his life. And your mother…" he trailed off, trying to remember what he could about her. "She was a very kind and caring young woman, which often surprised me when she went from that one minute to deadly and unforgiving the next. Though I suppose being trained for missions would make anyone into a fierce weapon." He shook his head at himself. "At any rate, they were both wonderful people, and although I didn't know them very well, anyone could tell that they loved you very much."

Aang smiled a little at his words before he looked at him gratefully. "Thank you, Gyatso. I'm glad that I at least got to know something about them."

"Of course, my boy," Gyatso smiled and patted him on the back. "I know that _I _would have wanted to know what my parents were like." Shaking his head from these thoughts, he quickly returned to business. "Now, back to where we were, you have your jacket, but there are a few standard items that you must carry with you always. Any other gadgets that you will need in the field will be assigned by Teo before you go out on your mission."

Aang smiled at the mention of his best friend. Although Teo was originally from the Earthen agency, there had been a misunderstanding that caused him and his father to flee for fear of death, to which the Winds took them in and made them one of their own. Now they couldn't be happier. They were free to tinker and invent whatever their hearts desired which, fortunately for the Winds, usually involved lots of weapons and gadgets that proved useful on their missions. "Sounds good to me," he grinned as Gyatso led the way back out to the main room and walked over to a wall with an assortment of gadgets on it.

"Firstly, we're going to give you this," he started as he grabbed an earpiece off of the wall and handed it to him. "This will be your means of communication for when you need to get in contact with base and with any other agents you might be out on a mission with." Aang nodded in response and pressed the power button before putting it inside his ear. "Great. The second thing we have for you is this," Gyatso took a ball point pen off of the table and handed it to Aang who looked at it in bewilderment. "This pen is not your average pen," he promised as he took another one and clicked it, revealing a long strand of collected energy shooting through the tip. Aang could feel the waves of heat radiating from it as he stared at it in amazement. "This pen, although appearing common, is far more lethal than anything else you'll find in the world. Not only is it ideal for fighting, it can also cut through any kind of metal known to man, and therefore will allow you access to any place you may need to go."

Aang grinned as he looked at his own pen in amazement. "That's amazing, Gyatso. What else do you have for me?" he asked excitedly. Gyatso chuckled and reached up on the wall to pull down a smart phone with a case on it. "You're giving me a phone? Won't that give away my position?" he asked curiously.

Gyatso shook his head. "This isn't really a phone, it's just made to look like it is," he assured him as he handed it to him. "Turn it on," he ordered. Aang turned it on and was amazed as a dozen programs came up on it. "This will help you get into areas that others will not want you in, along with some other added perks."

"Like what?" Aang asked curiously as he searched through the programs and noticed one with the money symbol on it.

"For instance," Gyatso stepped closer and pointed to the one he was looking at. "That one right there is all the funds you will ever need for your missions. We do not bother with cash anymore, so our money for the agency is all pooled into one offshore account that we distribute access to each of our agents. If you ever need anything, simply use that program and put it against the computer and it will be paid for."

Aang smiled as he looked at it. "That will definitely come in handy," he thought aloud before he looked at the rest of the programs with one especially catching his eye. "Sound enhancer?" he asked curiously as he looked up at his mentor.

Gyatso grinned. "I'm glad that you mentioned that, because the final gadget I will give you is related to that." He returned his attention to the wall and took off a box that held some orange earbuds in them and gave it to him. "That program will activate your microphone which, once in use, will be able to detect conversations from a hundred miles away."

"Really?" Aang asked with wide eyes as he stared down at the 'phone' in amazement.

"Really," Gyatso agreed as he patted him on the back and started walking out. "Now you have your standard gear, but I have one more not-so-standard piece of gear to give you. Follow me." Aang did as he was told and followed his mentor to another room filled with various weapons. There was everything from swords to guns along the walls as they walked in. "You may pick one of these weapons, but keep in mind that you'll want something quiet to ensure that you are not caught. Choose wisely," he advised him before taking a step back and letting Aang look around.

As he searched through the many rows of weapons, a small dagger with the symbol of the agency caught his eye. Making his way over to it quickly, he picked it up and admired it in the light. It looked to be brand new, appearing just as deadly as it appeared elegant. Gyatso smiled as he noticed what had taken Aang's interest. "You have good taste, Aang. This is the favored weapon of our top spies, and was even used by your father."

Aang looked at him in amazement. "Really?" Gyatso nodded with a small smile. Aang looked back at it and ran his hand over it when he felt the symbol on it being pressed. Without warning, the dagger tripled in size and turned into a longsword as Aang gasped in amazement at it.

"This weapon isn't like any of the others," Gyatso promised as he took it from his student and showed it to him. "This sword has several uses besides fighting. It can deflect any projectile shot at it and can even be used if you are in a dark place."

"I don't think I'm going to be depressed, Gyatso," Aang laughed a little as he took the sword back and admired it.

Gyatso laughed as well and shook his head. "No, Aang. That is not what I meant. Hold down on the button for five seconds." Aang did as he was told while Gyatso walked over to the end of the room and turned off the lights, making him gasp as the sword glowed a bright orange in the dark. "As you can see, I meant quite literally if you're in a dark place," Gyatso chuckled before he walked over and turned the lights back on.

"That's amazing!" Aang stared at his new weapon in awe before he pressed the button again and shrunk it back to a dagger. Gyatso walked over to a corner of the room and gave him a sheathe to put over his shoulder.

"This sheathe will only surrender its weapon when your dna activates it, so no one will be able to take it without your say-so. Any other questions?" Aang shook his head as he sheathed his dagger. "Good. Come, we must prepare you for your mission." Aang nodded and followed him out of the room as Gyatso closed it behind him and made their way to the planning room in the center of the building. As they walked into the room, Aang couldn't help but admire the beauty of where they were located. The Last Headquarters of the Winds had once been in the city where they thought they would not be discovered, but with an attack there that demolished it, the council decided they would never make that mistake again. Now at their new headquarters, they were located at the top of a mountain range where no one but those they trusted would know they were there. Gyatso finally made it to the center of the room and blew some air into two holes in the ground, making a large screen come up from the ground with Aang's profile on it. "Your first mission won't be easy, young one," Gyatso warned.

Aang shrugged as he looked at the screen. "I never expected it to be. Nothing about being a spy is easy."

"Wise words," Gyatso agreed with a small chuckle before becoming serious again. "We have gotten reports on a potential threat happening on a large island in the Caribbean." A picture of said island was displayed on the screen for Aang to see. "We are not entirely sure what it is we're looking for, but that is what we need to find out. Your mission will be to infiltrate the main building and gather as much information on it as you can and report back to us. Once we have seen what we are dealing with, we will figure out from there on next steps. Do you think you can handle this?"

"Yes sir," Aang replied confidently, making Gyatso smile at how grown up his student had become.

"Good. Before I forget, there is one other thing I must warn you about," Gyatso told him as he pressed a button and a picture of a figure in the background came on. "This is a well-known agent of the Water agency, known as 'The Wave'."

Aang tried to take a closer look at them, but could not find anything that could tell him about what kind of person they were. "Okay?" he asked in confusion as he turned back to Gyatso. "What should I know about them?"

Gyatso pressed a button and the screen changed to a picture of the symbol of the Water agency. "As you know, for a long time we have held an alliance with them, but recently things have not gone well for either of our agencies. This agent was seen attacking one of our own, and has in the process broken the alliance that we shared. Now they are open for attack should we run into them, but we will not seek them out. All except for this one, that is," he amended as he pointed to 'The Wave' on the right of the symbol. "This one has proven to be too much of a risk to be left alive, and we cannot allow them to try to harm more of our brothers and sisters. Word has it that the Water agency is sending 'The Wave' to find out what's going on as we are, but we will have a different purpose added to our mission." He gave Aang a serious look. "To ensure that justice is done, 'The Wave' must be silenced forever."

* * *

Sweat poured down Katara's face as she sparred with her brother. "Come on, Sokka! You're supposed to keep up with me," she taunted as she swung at him with her fist. Sokka easily side-stepped her strike and attempted to kick her from behind, but she simply rolled out of the way and his foot met the wall behind her.

"Ow!" he yelled in pain as he hopped around on his good foot and quickly got over the pain before returning his attention to his sister. "I'm trying, but if you didn't move around so much, then maybe I wouldn't keep kicking walls," he grumbled before moving up again to strike. Katara didn't give him the chance and swept him off his feet, making him crash to the ground hard as he let out a groan of pain.

She smirked at him as she wiped some sweat from her forehead. "How do you ever expect to beat me if you keep doing the same moves?" she teased before offering a hand to help him up.

"You're one to talk," Sokka snorted with a roll of his eyes as he took it and stood up. "At least _I _didn't attack one of the Winds and make our several hundred years old alliance crumble into nothing."

Katara's smirk dropped as she looked down in shame before her pride stepped in. "Well how was I supposed to know that he was an agent of the Winds?" she asked defiantly with her arms crossed.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Gee, I don't know. Maybe you could tell by the big swirl pattern on their hoods?" he shot back before he leaned against the wall and took a sip of his water bottle. "Now thanks to you, we have been made enemies of the only agency that we truly got along with."

Katara rolled her eyes in return. "Hey, we get along pretty well with the Earthen agency," she argued before taking a sip herself.

"Maybe," Sokka conceded as he wiped some sweat from his brows. "But still. The Winds were our closest allies before _you_ decided to attack one of their top people."

"Sokka, I told you, it was an accident!" she exclaimed exasperatedly with the biggest roll of her eyes Sokka had ever seen from her. "If I had known that he was a Wind, I never would have done it."

Sokka shook his head and walked out of the room with her right behind him. "Well maybe if you had waited for more than one second to attack him, then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation. Now not only do we have to watch out for the Fire agency, we have to watch out for the Wind agency too."

Katara snorted and rolled her eyes once again. "Oh please. We'll be fine, Sokka. The Fire agency is filled with a bunch of easily angered douchebags and the Wind agents are filled with peaceful old men. There's nothing to worry about."

"Wow," Sokka laughed incredulously as he made his way to their rooms. "You really don't know anything about the Winds, do you?"

She looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean? The records in the agency library-"

"Are from four hundred years ago," Sokka cut her off as he took another sip from his water bottle and turned down a hallway. "You know, before the whole agency battle that forced the Winds to become hostile towards their enemies when their leader was assassinated?"

Katara's eyes widened as she remembered the story of how the once peaceful agency had become known as the most lethal one in history. "That's right," she muttered while slapping her own forehead in disbelief at herself. "And now instead of being our friends, they probably hate us."

"Yep. Good job on that, by the way," Sokka said fake-cheerily as they reached the housing portion of the agency. As they walked in, Katara still couldn't help but be amazed at where their agency had picked to hide. Being by water was one thing, but having their headquarters anchored _underneath_ water was something else entirely. It worked well for them, however, as the only way anyone would be able to know where their location was if they scanned with sonar over vast amounts of the oceans which would take far too long before they finally found it. It was a bit of a pain for those who enjoyed fresh air, as they would have to go up in a submarine to get it, but was otherwise ideal for them. Ever since Katara was a little girl, she had always enjoyed being in the water. Even before her parents had joined the agency her grandfather ran, she had always felt a special connection to the water. Likely due to the fact that she was a Water bender, but regardless, that connection was there all the same. "I suppose it doesn't really matter now," Sokka continued as he made his way to their rooms that were right across from each other. "We'll just have to be careful when we go out in the field."

"You mean like the mission we're going on tomorrow?" she asked seriously.

He nodded slowly as he thought about it. "Yes, exactly like the mission we're going on tomorrow," he agreed as he thought more into it. "Though on the bright side, we won't be going in alone."

Katara looked at him curiously as they walked. "What do you mean? It's usually just us on our missions."

"Yeah, it usually is," he agreed as he finally reached his room and turned around to look at her. "But this mission is more serious than the other ones we've been on. This could actually be a big deal if we're not careful, so the Earthen agency has sent their best agent to help us out."

Katara smiled a little as she thought about it. "That's cool. It'll be nice having someone else help us out. Then maybe we can even finish the mission quicker and get back home."

"I wouldn't get too excited yet," Sokka chuckled as he leaned up against the door and almost fell from the door that had opened slightly. After making sure he was okay, he continued, "There's a reason why this agent is the best of the Earthen agency. They say that though she's the strongest agent they've got, that also means that she's the proudest and most stubborn agent they've got."

Katara groaned in annoyance as she rolled her eyes. "Of course she is. It wouldn't be a mission if there wasn't an unexpected complication, would it?"

"No it wouldn't," he agreed as he moved and leaned up against the wall, secretly sighing in relief as he didn't fall again. "But we'll have to work together to get this done. Especially if we do end up having the Winds on our tail."

"Yeah, we will," Katara nodded as she thought about it. "Have we heard anything about the Winds' movements lately?"

Sokka shook his head. "No, we haven't heard much about them, but knowing how involved they were in the state of the World, I wouldn't put it past them to send their own agents to see what's going on."

"We'll definitely have to watch out for them, then," Katara mused as she thought it over. "Especially if they send their newest agent."

Sokka looked at her in confusion. "How do you know new stuff about the Winds that I don't?" he asked in confusion.

Katara shrugged. "Before I… made my mistake… there was a chat between our people and the Winds. While we were all talking, I spoke to a few of the agents there and they were all talking about the same man. A trainee that was about to be made an agent that they wouldn't stop talking about."

"What was the big deal with this guy?" Sokka wondered as he scratched his head.

"Apparently he's not like any other agent they've had before," she told him with a slightly worried look on her face. "They say that he's the most deadly agent they've ever had, and that he has powers that no one else has ever shown before."

Sokka's eyebrow raised as he looked at her disbelievingly. "Oh please. They probably just wanted to brag about something. I'm sure it's nothing." Katara still didn't look sure, but he shrugged and stood up straight. "If what they said is true, then we'll just have to be extra careful in case we run into him. Okay?"

"Okay," Katara agreed before turning around. "I'm gonna get some sleep. Night Sokka." Without another word, she quickly walked into her apartment and shut the door while slumping up against it. She didn't want her brother to see her like this, but she was truly worried. What she hadn't told her brother was that the agents of the Winds she had spoken to had told her more than she had let on. According to them, this new agent was the most cunning, intelligent, and strong spy they had ever had. And there was something else, too. Something from a legend long ago… Katara still wasn't sure if she should believe them or not, but she had seen videos of him on missions that he had gone on with agents of the Water Agency. If he was the one sent after her… she would truly have to watch her back. Sighing slightly, she shook off her nerves and made her way to her bed. As she laid down, her mind couldn't help but think about this agent who might be after her. Katara wasn't one to be easily scared, but if the legends she had heard were true…

A knock on the door sounded, making her curious as she snapped out of her thoughts. No one had visited her this late at night for a long time. Without a second thought, she quickly got out of her bed and opened the door, becoming confused when no one was there. As she looked around, an envelope caught her eye as it laid on the ground in front of her. Raising an eyebrow, she crouched down and picked it up, making sure to close the door before she walked to the table and sat down, wondering why someone had left her a letter. Opening it quickly, she took out a letter and was amazed to see it in scrambled letters. "I'll need my descrambler," she thought aloud before going into her room and digging through her desk. After a few minutes of searching, she finally found it and brought it out to the table. Placing the letter flat out on the table, she scanned it with her descrambler and read the contents on the screen.

"Katara Aqua," she read aloud as she looked between the screen and the letter. "I am taking a serious risk by doing this, but your father once saved my life, so now I give you this warning: The Agent we have told you about is being sent after you." She stopped reading for a moment and took a deep breath, feeling her fear spike as the realization hit her before she continued, "If you are not careful, he _will_ take your life. Watch your back, because he is not like any foe you have ever faced before. Give your father my best wishes." She paused as she looked at the letter closely and saw there was more. "P.S. This letter and the descrambler you used will self-destruct in ten seconds upon reading this last word." Her eyes widened as the paper and the descrambler started counting down in perfect sync. Knowing what she had to do, she quickly ran to the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet, just barely managing to get it out of the way before a thud could be heard from the drainage pipes. She just hoped that it wouldn't cause any plumbing issues. The last thing her agency needed was to call in a plumber and then erase his or her memories like they had to do before. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head at herself. "You really did it now, huh Katara?" she chided herself as she walked back to her room and laid down in her bed. Wrapping herself in her blankets, it wasn't long before she fell into a deep sleep.

A loud _crash!_ woke Katara up, making her shoot up instantly and look around with tired eyes. _What's going on?_ She thought tiredly before she slowly got up and snuck over to her bedroom door. Cracking it open slightly, she was surprised to see complete darkness in her apartment. Katara wasn't afraid of the dark, but she was no stranger to late night bathroom visits, and had made sure to have at least a nightlight out there to guide her way to the bathroom. But now there was no light at all, and she wasn't sure what to think of that. Certainly that couldn't be a good sign, could it? Another crashing sound came to her right, to which she quickly ran to and found herself in her kitchen. As she turned on the lights, she saw that there was nothing there except a pot that had fallen from the counter. _Wait a minute…_ she thought as her eyes widened a little in fear. _I didn't leave a pot on the counter…_ Light footsteps could be heard behind her, making her turn around quickly as she stared into the darkness of the living room. Taking a few deep breaths until she was calm, she took the pan that had 'dropped' onto the ground and got into a defensive position. "Whoever you are, stay away from me!" she warned, trying to hide the fear in her voice and failing. A pair of white eyes came out of the dark, making her gasp as they moved closer to her until she could see the silhouette of a man with a hood hanging over his face. "Who are you?" she asked while pointing the pan at him.

"I am your end," the man whispered back before closing his dark gray eyes again. Katara's eyes widened in fear as she tried to make a dash for it, but a blade came out of her chest, ending her life as she hit the floor.

_Flash._

Katara breathed heavily as she ran across a rooftop. She was running from something, but she didn't know what from. All she knew was that if she stopped, she would die. A flash of black caught the corner of her eye as she continued running, temporarily slowing down from time to time to jump over an obstacle in her path.

"You cannot run forever," a voice promised from behind her. A new wave of fear rolled off of her as she ran faster, knowing that the only way she would lose her attacker was with speed. A large air vent stood in her way, making her worry a little before an idea came to mind. Not wanting to waste a second, she quickly jumped onto a smaller vent to her left and vaulted to the top and disappeared into the ventilation system. Landing roughly, she shook her head and crawled through it until she felt she had put enough distance between her and whatever was chasing her. "And you cannot hide forever," the voice whispered in her ear behind her, making her eyes widen in surprise before everything went dark.

_Flash_

Katara gasped and shot up from her dreams, panting heavily and trying desperately to regain her bearings. She couldn't seem to shake off the fear from her dreams as she tried to breathe, and it only grew worse as time passed. "You're finally awake," a voice said from behind her. Her eyes widened in fear as she got up from her bed and turned around in a defensive position, but saw no one on her bed. Confused and still breathing heavily, she crept over to her window and looked outside, but saw nothing. As she looked through the window, she saw some movement in the reflection from the glass, making her gasp as she stared into the dark gray eyes that had haunted her dreams. "And now you will sleep forever," the hooded man said before he brandished a dagger from his back and stabbed her through hers, going right through her lungs as she ceased breath.

* * *

"Noooooo!" Katara yelled as she thrashed around in her sleep. "You won't get me!"

Sokka, who had heard his sister's cries in the night, sighed in exasperation. "Katara, wake up!" he yelled as he shook her until she finally woke up.

"Sokka?" Katara asked tiredly as she sat up on her bed and blinked a few times in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

He rolled his eyes. "I heard _you_ screaming in your sleep. I'm surprised that you didn't wake up the rest of the agency!" he exaggerated while waving his arms in the air before he took a deep breath. "Look, as much as I could be complaining about how you woke me up, are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

Katara was touched by the concern on his face, but she shook her head with a long sigh. "No Sokka, I'm not," she admitted while looking down at her feet. "I didn't tell you the whole truth of what I heard from the Wind Agents."

Sokka raised an eyebrow as he sat on the bed. "What do you mean? What did you not tell me?"

"This Agent they told me about… he's supposed to be the most deadly agent they've ever had," she told him as she tried to clear her fearful dreams from her mind. "They told me that he was supposed to be their champion. The one that would one day lead them into a golden age for their agency and would defeat any enemies they had. But they also told me of a legend…" she trailed off nervously, seeing flashbacks of the dark gray eyes that haunted her.

"What kind of legend?" Sokka asked warily as he looked at her in confusion, wondering what this legend was that could make her so scared.

Katara was silent for another moment before she finally spoke, "I don't know all of the details but… apparently, long ago there was used to be a man who governed over the world, making sure that each of the four countries got along and was known as 'The Peacekeeper'."

"The Peacekeeper?" Sokka asked disbelievingly. "What kind of name is that?"

"Hey, I didn't come up with the name! Just let me finish!" she glared at him, making his eyes widen as he remained silent and waited. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "So this 'Peacekeeper' wasn't like any human the world had ever known. He was the master of all elements and had the wisdom of a thousand lifetimes, but he was still mortal and died from old age. Before his death, his last words were a promise. A promise that one day, when the world needed another peacekeeper to set things right, that God would send another to ensure the world remained in peace." She paused and rubbed her eyes, still feeling drowsy from her sleep. "Then one day, the Winds top two agents fell in love and had a kid. And the kid was supposedly born with the birthmark as the Peacekeeper from the legend. Whether any of that's true or not, I have no clue. What I do know is I've seen footage of him on a mission, and he's not like any agent I've seen before."

Sokka was silent for a moment before he patted her reassuringly on the back. "Okay… well then we'll deal with whatever comes. Right now we've got more important things to worry about. Pakku said that this mission could mean the end of the world if it's not taken care of." He paused and gave her a half hug. "I promise, I'll do whatever I can to protect you."

Katara scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I can protect myself, Sokka."

"Your fear of this guy seems to argue otherwise," he responded with a small chuckle before he became serious again. "Even if this guy does is the man from the legend and is sent after you, we can do this. We've survived a lot of other missions before. Who says we can't do it again? And who knows? Maybe we can explain to him why everything went wrong and he can back off from his orders."

"Yeah… maybe…" Katara replied doubtfully, but she knew better than to argue with her brother when it was so late at night. "Alright, I've kept you up long enough. Go get some sleep. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

Sokka chuckled and stood up. "Yeah, tomorrow should be interesting," he agreed and gave her a small smile. "Get some sleep sis. Love ya."

"Love ya too, bro," she yawned as he walked out of the room and shut the door. Although her fear wasn't gone, she felt a little better knowing that her brother would be there for her. Maybe he was right. Maybe if they just explained what had happened, then maybe he really would abandon his orders of her death. She shook her head at herself. It didn't matter. Being an agent, she was well aware of the risks that came with it, and she knew that to be an agent she would have to accept what could happen on the mission. Taking a deep breath, she breathed out slowly and nodded to herself in the reflection of the window. If she was to die on this mission, she would die as she lived: in the service of others. With that thought in mind, she laid back down and slowly drifted off into peaceful dreams with a small smile on her face.


	2. New and Old Friends

Chapter 2: New and Old Friends

**Responses to Reviews: **

**AnonymousKataang: Well I'm glad that you like it so far. Action stories are my favorite to write because they're exciting and keep you on your toes. Hopefully this story is better than Stormborn, that would mean that I'm improving with every story. Yeah, you're right about the fic I deleted. I just thought I liked it, but I read over it and wasn't very satisfied with it, so I decided to delete it. Sorry if you liked it. Merry late Christmas to you, too! Thanks for reading and the review! **

**Guest: Thanks! I'm glad that you like it so far! Hopefully I can keep it up. Thanks for reading and the review! **

**Javier: I'm glad that you think that it's that good so far. I wish I could agree with you, but nothing I write ever seems... well, right. But thanks for reading and the review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

Aang sharpened his blade as he waited patiently for Gyatso to arrive. It was the day he was to be sent out for his mission, and the day where he would start his hunt for this mysterious "Wave" agent who he was supposed to kill. Aang had no qualms about killing bad guys, but he was more reluctant to hunt down fellow agents, even if they weren't from the same agency as him. Though he supposed that this agent had earned it by attacking one of his own, making his reluctance disappear at that thought. After a few minutes of waiting, Gyatso finally arrived. "Good morning, Gyatso," Aang greeted him with a smile as he put his blade back into its sheath.

Gyatso smiled and walked over to him. "Good morning, Aang. Are you ready for your mission?"

"Absolutely," Aang grinned as he stood up and joined Gyatso as they walked down a hallway. "Though I've got to admit, I"m a little nervous."

"And why is that?" Gyatso asked curiously as they turned down into another hallway.

"Because it's my first mission as a full-fledged spy," Aang chuckled. "I _just _got made a spy _yesterday_ and now I'm going on a mission that might affect the fate of the world."

Gyatso chuckled as well as they walked. "It would not be the first time," he pointed out. "You remember the man who tried to take over the world by holding the world leaders hostage?"

Aang laughed as he thought about it. "Yeah, I remember. I truly don't know what he was thinking. He had to have known that someone would come after him."

"Apparently not," Gyatso grinned and clapped his student on the shoulder. "He never saw you coming, did he?"

Aang grinned as well with a proud twinkle in his eyes. "Nope, he never did." They finally reached their destination as Aang was surprised to see some old friends. "Is that…"

The two people talking heard him and turned around to face him as a smile grew on his face. "Hey Aang," Zuko waved with a grin on his face while the girl gave him a smile.

"Zuko, Suki!" Aang laughed merrily and walked over to them to give them a hug, making Zuko grimace before he pulled away. "Wow, still not big on hugs, huh?"

Zuko shook his head. "Nope. I don't think I ever will be," he admitted, making Suki laugh before she gave him a hug which Zuko melted into.

""Not big on hugs, huh?" she teased as she pulled back, making Zuko feel a little disappointed that he was no longer holding her in his arms before he blushed heavily at her words. Aang grinned as he looked at his friends. It had been pretty obvious since he first met them that Zuko had a crush on her, but Suki was never clear how she felt about him in return. Whether that was on purpose or not, he didn't know, but he did know that she had a crush on him, which was both oddly gratifying that a beauty like her would like him and annoying at the same time due to his friend who's heart obviously belonged to her. Not wasting another moment, she pulled Aang into a hug and smiled, enjoying the feeling of being in his arms. Although he had told her that they weren't meant to be, she still had feelings for him and would take every chance she could get to feel him close to her, much to Zuko's disliking.

It wasn't much longer before Zuko's jealousy spiked and he stepped between them, much to Aang's relief. "Well, we should go talk about the mission, right?" he asked Aang with a pointed look.

"Absolutely," Aang laughed as he put his arms around each of their shoulders with Gyatso right behind them. "Wait, you guys are joining me on my mission?" he asked excitedly.

Suki grinned and looked at him with a twinkle in her eye. "You bet. We wanted to be the first ones to help you on your first mission as an official spy."

"That and my father wanted to make sure that the Fire Agency got credit for helping save the world," Zuko added, making Suki slap him on the back of the head. "What was that for?" Zuko asked grumpily as he rubbed his injured head.

Suki rolled her eyes. "That part wasn't necessary, Zuko. You could have just said what I said."

Zuko shrugged with a laugh, getting over his anger instantly as he stared into her teal eyes. "I was just trying to be honest," he replied with a smile, making her smile back for a second before she shook her head.

Aang grinned at his friends as they neared their destination. Though he hadn't seen them in a while, they hadn't changed at all since the last time they had been together. A thought came to mind as he looked at Suki. "How are you here right now, Suki? The Earthen Agency and Wind Agency don't get along," he asked in confusion.

"Well that's because I'm not with the Earthen Agency anymore," Suki admitted, catching Aang by surprise as he waited for her to explain. "It's a long story, but let's just say that the Agency and I don't agree anymore and I thought it would be best if I left."

Zuko snickered as he looked at her. "You thought it would be best if you left? From what I heard, you got kicked out for getting into too many fights with the other agents."

Suki huffed and crossed her arms angrily. "Well maybe if the men hadn't been such jerks and tried hitting on me constantly, then maybe I wouldn't have had to beat them up." Zuko's snickering finally stopped as anger poured over him. Knowing where this was going, Aang quickly steered the conversation in another direction.

"Well at any rate, I'm glad you guys are here," he told them with a smile. "It'll be nice having my friends to help me out."

"Yeah, we're glad to be here. Right Zuko?" she asked sweetly with a pointed look at him.

Zuko nodded quickly. "Yeah, we're glad to be here." He paused and looked to Aang with a grin. "After all, it's not every day that I get to see my best friend."

Aang grinned and clapped him on the back, making him wince in pain as he barely managed to hold in a yelp. "Yeah, I like that part of it too." Then a question popped into his mind as he turned to Suki. "If you're no longer with the Earthen Agency, then how are you here?" he asked in confusion.

Suki shrugged as they continued walking. "I'm more of a rogue agent, now. I can choose to fight with whoever I want to. I don't hold any loyalties except to my friends."

"What about your gadgets and weapons?" he asked curiously.

"I left them back at the agency," she shrugged. "It was the only way they would let me leave."

"We'll just have to make sure you have what you need before we set out then," Aang decided as they finally walked up to a room where loud mechanical noises emanated from it.

"Let me guess... Teo?" Zuko asked sarcastically, making Aang laugh as he nodded in response. "Shocker," he chuckled before Aang opened the door for them. As they walked in, they couldn't help but be amazed at the sight before them. "Wow, Teo and his father have been busy since the last time I was here."

Aang laughed with a little. "Yes they have. They've done well here since they left the Earthen Agency, and have created some of the most amazing things I've ever seen." Gyatso decided to take charge and walked up to the service counter before he hit a bell that made a loud _ding!_ throughout the room, making everyone groan in annoyance as Teo came up the counter smeared in oil. "Hey guys! What do you need?" He looked over to Aang and smiled wider. "Congrats on making it to a full member of the agency, buddy!" he cheered as he walked around the counter and gave him a bro hug.

Aang laughed again and returned the hug before Teo went back to the counter. "Thanks man. I actually have my first mission today."

"Yes he does," Gyatso stepped in before anyone else could speak. "And because of that he is going to need some special tools for mission C37-8."

"C37-8…" Teo hummed thoughtfully as he pulled out his binder labeled "Missions and Gadgets". Opening it quickly, he perused through it until he found what he was looking for. "Ha! C37-8! Let me get this for you real quick."

"And while you're at it," Aang spoke up. "Suki here is going to need some gear as well, if you don't mind."

Teo grinned. "Of course. Let me see what I've got back here. I'm sure I'll have something to help her out." Without another word, e walked into the backroom and didn't come back out for several minutes until he returned with a large bin full of gadgets and weaponry. "This should have everything you will need for the mission. We'll start with Suki's stuff."

"What do you have for me?" she asked excitedly as she peeked into the bin, a golden stick catching her eye.

"For starters we'll give you your standard equipment," he told her as he handed her exactly what Aang had been given. When he handed her the phone, she looked at him in confusion.

"Can't people track our phones?" she asked in bewilderment, wondering why they would give her a phone. All spies knew that having a phone was like wearing a big target on your back with the words 'Shoot me! I want to die!'.

Aang laughed as he shook his head. "That's what I thought when I got mine, but it's not a phone. It's just made to look that way," he explained.

"Oh," she said in understanding before she put the stuff in her jacket pockets and returned her attention to Teo. "What else do you have for me?" Teo rummaged around in the bin before he pulled out the golden stick that she had been eyeing and a pistol. "You're giving me a gun and a stick?" she asked in disbelief.

Teo snickered and shook his head. "This isn't just a stick," he promised before he grabbed it and flicked it open, revealing a melee fan with the symbol of the Wind Agency in the middle. "This is a combat weapon. Not only can it be used for defense, when it's in 'stick mode' as you call it, it's made out of a very strong metal and can easily smash in skulls."

Suki grinned as she took it from Teo. "Awesome. I can't wait to try it out. What else have you got for me?" she asked sweetly, hoping he would give her more stuff to use.

He thought about it for a moment before an idea came to mind. Quickly running into the backroom, he came back a minute later with what appeared to be a golden top knot hairpin. "You really expect me to wear _that_?" she asked in disbelief.

"It's not what you think," he promised before he put it on himself. Before Zuko could make fun of him, he pressed a button on the top of the hair pin and disappeared before their eyes, making everyone but Gyatso gasp in amazement before he returned to being visible. "See? It might look stupid, but it has a purpose," he promised as he handed it to her.

"Hey!" Zuko complained. "At least half of my Agency's people wear top knots! It doesn't look stupid!" he argued a little angrily.

Teo raised his hands in the air in a placating gesture. "Okay, okay! I was just kidding, man! Chill!" Zuko seemed to calm down before he muttered to himself, "Nope, still looks stupid," earning laughs from Suki, Aang, and Gyatso.

"What was that?" Zuko asked, having no clue what Teo had said.

"Nothing!" Teo gave him a big smile before returning his attention to the bin. "And for you, Zuko, the Agency wanted me to give you this as a gesture of goodwill for joining on the mission." He pulled out a couple of bracers and handed it to a confused looking Zuko.

"What are these for?" he asked in bewilderment as he looked closely at them. "I've already got armor, I'm good."

Teo shook his head. "This isn't just armor," he promised as he took one from Zuko and pointed to a button on the side of it with a fire symbol on it. "See this button here?" Zuko nodded in response as he looked closer at it. "When you press that button, not only will it amplify your powers, it will allow you to do some new maneuvers that should come in handy."

"Like what?" Zuko wondered as he put the bracers on and admired them in the light. Pressing the button, he concentrated some fire into it and was amazed as he held a fire whip in his hands. "Awesome," he grinned before he let it go.

"That's just the start," Teo promised with a grin before he turned his attention to Aang. "And now for you. This stuff isn't as fun, but will be needed for your mission." He took out a USB and handed it to Aang.

"A USB?" Aang questioned with a puzzled look.

Teo nodded. "Yep. You're going to need this for when you go on your mission. This USB is synced to our database, so once you plug it into their main computer, our systems will receive the information that the USB will take."

"Okay, that makes sense," Aang nodded as he put it in his pocket. "What else have you got for me?"

Rummaging through the bin, Teo grinned and handed Aang what appeared to be a small pistol that could fit in his hand "This is has several uses," Teo explained as he handed him some ammunition in a box. Aang looked closely at it and was surprised to see one section say 'mind control darts".

"Mind control darts?" he asked in surprise as he looked back up to his friend.

Teo grinned with a shrug. "Yeah. My father and I figured out a way to temporarily allow you to control your enemies. One dart buys you an hour of time by injecting a serum that puts the victim into a sort of hypnotic stance. They'll do whatever you ask of them before the serum's affect runs out."

"Cool," Aang smiled and put the pistol in the pocket on the inside of the jacket with the ammunition next to it. "Anything else I might need?"

"Yeah, I've got one more thing for you here," he said as he grabbed two objects from the bin and set them before him. They appeared ordinary, only being two squares with the symbol of the agency on them. "These are your two new best friends that _aren't_ human," Teo joked, making everyone laugh before he pressed a button and the squares transformed into a mechanical German shepherd and a hawk. "Though they start out in this form, they can shift to whatever you might need." He turned to the robotic animals. "Switch from dog to lion, please," he requested to the one on the left. The robot did as it was told and turned into a small lion, roaring a little as it shook it's mechanical tail.

"Wow," Suki breathed as she walked up to it and stroked its head, making the robot turn back into a dog and pant happily as she pet it. "It's amazing. It looks so realistic."

Teo smirked proudly. "Yeah, that's what me and my dad were going for." He turned to Aang. "They both have several uses. For instance, the first one here," he gestured to the dog Suki was still petting, "can change into any kind of land roaming animal you want. And your other buddy here," he patted the hawk on the head who nuzzled into his hand, "can change into any flying animal you want."

"Even a dragon?" Zuko asked excitedly.

"Yup," Teo laughed at Zuko's excitement. "Like I said, pretty much anything that can fly." He looked back at Aang. "They can fight, climb, sneak around, record, and can even pick off enemies if you tell them too."

Aang grinned and walked up to his new 'pets'. "Awesome. I think I'll call you… Appa," he told the dog who barked in response, "and I'll call you… Momo," he decided while the hawk chirped and nuzzled into him.

Gyatso smiled at his ward. Even if Aang was never going to have a normal life, he would at least get to have the pets he had wanted from when he was younger. Even if they were made of metal and were automated. "Good work, Teo," he complimented him as he admired his handiwork. "You and your father have served us well. Thank you both," he bowed to him.

"It's our pleasure sir," Teo bowed back to him before Gyatso returned his attention to his charge.

"Come, Aang. We must send you on your way. The sooner we know what we're dealing with, the sooner we can put this nonsense to rest," he told him as he led the way out of the room. Suki and Zuko followed him out while Aang stayed behind for a moment.

"Thanks Teo! See you later!" he gave him a quick bro hug before he ran out after his friends with his new pets right behind him. Running to catch up, he finally reached them as they made their way to the agency hanger. Gyatso led the way towards a small jet that was being prepped for them. As they reached it, a man jumped out of it and walked over to Gyatso.

"It's ready for takeoff, sir. It should be in great condition for the mission."

Gyatso nodded to him with a smile. "Thank you, Jin Ju. You may go back to training. I will be there shortly." Jin Ju nodded and walked away, though not without leaving a small cloud of gas behind, making the four of them gag on the stench.

"Why does he always have gas?" Aang complained as he pinched his nose and tried his best not to succumb to the smell.

Gyatso shook his head in disgust. "I wish I knew," he sighed before the smell had cleared enough for them to breathe normally. Knowing it was time, he turned to his ward. "It is time for you to go, but remember what I taught you."

"Of course," Aang smiled and bowed to him before giving him a hug which Gyatso returned with a smile.

"Good luck out there, my pupil." He turned to Suki and Zuko. "Take care of him," he requested politely.

"We will, sir," she smiled with a glance at Aang. "He'll be well taken care of. Right Zuko?" Zuko, who had been busy petting the hawk who had perched on his shoulder, did not hear her words. Rolling her eyes, she flicked Zuko on the back of his head as he snapped back to attention.

"Yes! He'll be just fine," he promised with a small glare in Suki's direction. Suki just smirked and started walking into the jet with Zuko behind her while Aang gave Gyatso one last bow of respect.

"Wish us luck!" Aang yelled over the loud noise of the jet starting up before he hopped into it and set their course.

Zuko looked at him from the back seat as Aang and Suki took the pilot and co-pilot seats. "So where are we going?" he asked curiously.

Aang grinned as he looked back at him. "We're going to an island in the Caribbean. It's called the Island of Misfortune."

* * *

Katara looked out of her window as she waited for her brother to come and get her. They had decided it would be best if they left early in the morning, knowing that would be the most opportune time to head out for the mission. This was annoying to her, however, as neither she nor her brother were early risers, which likely was the reason he was running late. As she waited, she mused over what had transpired the night before. Though her fears had lessened, they were still there. This new agent was unlike anything she had seen before, and she just hoped that Sokka was right and that they could explain what happened and maybe even renegotiate the alliance between the two factions. She knew it wasn't likely, but if there was anything she had learned from he deceased mother, it was how to hold on to hope even in the bleakest of times.

Her eyes saddened as she remembered her mother. Even though she didn't regret the life of a spy, she wished her mother hadn't joined. Then maybe she would still be alive. Katara shook her head at these thoughts. No matter how much she would miss her mother, she knew that she died as she lived, protecting the ones she cared about, and that would just have to be enough. On the bright side of things, Katara had never felt more alive as when she went out on missions. She had always been a fighter. Even when she was young, before her grandfather had talked her mother into joining the agency, she was always getting into trouble with her brother. Usually that involved dealing with school bullies. She laughed as she remembered how they had taken down the school bully back in third grade. Sokka, who had dubbed himself as 'The Plan Guy', had decided that the best way to get him to stop was to scare him. His plan was simple yet complex, as it required many moving pieces at once. Although it worked, Katara couldn't help but chuckle at the look on Sokka's face when his plan didn't go quite as he expected it to, resulting in him going home with a wedgie. Despite an unforeseen "tragedy" as he called it, the rest of the plan had gone well and the bully ended up moving to another school, starting a long line of victories for them that led to where they were then. And now she had another mission, one that she would not allow to end her streak of victories, even if it meant her death.

"Are you ready?"

She snapped out of her thoughts to see her brother peeking his head through her front door before she nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready."

"Come on. We need to go meet our new teammate," Sokka chuckled as he motioned for her to follow. Taking a deep breath, she put on her jacket and made sure she had what she needed for the mission. Once she was absolutely sure, she followed him as he led the way out to the main planning room where a few agents were conversing.

As they walked in, her father smiled and gestured for them to sit in the chairs next to him. "Come on in, guys. We were just getting acquainted." They took their seats and waited for him to speak. "This here is Toph Bei Fong, the top agent of the Earthen Agency."

"Sup," Toph nodded to them in greeting. Sokka drooled a little as he looked at her, but quickly snapped back to reality as his sister's laughs at his stupidity rang throughout the room.

"Hi. I'm Katara, and this is my dumb brother Sokka," she smirked at her brother after finally settling down, earning a glare from him before he returned to normal.

Toph snorted with a grin. "Good to know. I'll have to keep that in mind when we're fighting bad guys," she laughed. Katara laughed as well and looked closer at the new girl when she noticed what looked like film over her eyes. "Are you…"

"Blind?" she asked with a sigh. "Yeah, I'm blind. But I can see by using my Earthbending, so I'm not totally blind as long as I'm on Earth or metal."

Sokka's eyes widened in surprise. "You can metal bend?" he asked in disbelief.

Toph smirked proudly. "Yes I can. I invented it and am currently the only one in the world that knows how to do it. And I don't plan on teaching anyone else unless I'm sure that they can handle it," she replied in a warning tone.

"Noted," Katara laughed a little. "Well you won't have to worry about us asking, because neither of us are Earthbenders."

Toph blushed and smiled sheepishly. "Right. I forgot about that."

Hakoda chuckled and retook the attention of the group. "Okay then. Well now that you guys are introduced, we should get down to business." They were all silent as a screen was wheeled over to the table for them to see. "This mission isn't going to be like any mission you've been on before," he warned them. "This one could potentially mean the end of the world if we're not careful, so please don't do anything to set it off," he almost begged.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "We won't do that, dad. At least I won't," he grinned at Katara who scoffed and crossed her arms at him.

"How many times do I have to tell you, it was-"

"An accident. Yeah, I know. I heard it the first fifty times," Sokka rolled his eyes once again. "Doesn't change the fact that the most dangerous agency in the world is going to be gunning for us now."

Hakoda finally stepped in, knowing it would only get worse if he let it continue. "Enough, you two. There's no point assigning blame right now. It won't do us any good." Sokka let out a long sigh and nodded in acceptance. "Good. Now, we're going to be sending you to an island in the Carribean called Isla de Degracia."

"What's that mean, boss man?" Toph raised her hand as she kicked up her feet on the table, much to Katara's disgust as she saw she wasn't wearing shoes or even socks.

"In English it means 'Island of Misfortune," he explained, causing the three agents eyes to widen as they heard the unusual name. "And it is not named without reason." Pressing a button on his remote, pictures of the island getting hit by several hurricanes through time were displayed. "Those who have lived on this island usually moved elsewhere within a month. The only ones who stay are the ones who are smart enough to keep a bunker should a hurricane hit."

"And this is where we have to go?" Sokka asked in annoyance. "Of course a bad guy would want to keep a cursed island as his headquarters," he grumbled before he allowed his father to continue.

Hakoda laughed a little at his son and shook his head. "Yes, it does seem weird that they would pick such a place, but nonetheless, this is where they were reported to have been. Your mission for now is to go into their main building in the center of the island and find what information you can on whatever they're planning. Once we know what we're dealing with, then we'll make a plan to stop them."

"Well that seems simple enough," Katara thought aloud as she looked closer at the pictures and noticed something weird. Was she just picturing it or… did that picture show a stormcloud coming out of a building?

"Unfortunately it's not as simple as it seems," Hakoda gave her an apologetic look as he changed the picture again and showed that the center of the island was surrounded by soldiers and weapons, making Katara and Sokka nervous as they noticed everything from gunmen to rocket launchers.

"What?" Toph asked in confusion as she felt their fear cause their hearts to pound rapidly through the metal table. "You guys are going to have to tell me what's on the screen."

Sokka looked at her in confusion, already forgetting her blindness. "Why's that?"

Toph sighed and smacked her head a little. "Wow, your sister really wasn't kidding about you being dumb," she shook her head at him. He turned and glared at his sister who smirked and shrugged before Toph continued, "I'm blind, genius. I can't see what's on the screen."

"Oh," he said in realization as he blushed in embarrassment. "Right. Well where we're going has a lot of soldiers and defenses that we'll need to get past if we want to get to the center."

Toph grinned and cracked her knuckles. "Well then we'll just blow up their defenses and walk right in. No problem," she replied with a punch to his shoulder, making him wince as he rubbed it silently.

"It's not going to be that easy," Katara argued. "Even if we wanted to use that much firepower, we can't just destroy everything and charge in there. If we make a wrong move, they could accelerate whatever they're planning and we wouldn't have enough time to be able to stop it. If we want to do this successfully, then we'll have to sneak in and get the information."

Toph rolled her eyes and let out a long sigh. "Fine, whatever," she grumbled, clearly disappointed at not being able to have the fun she wanted.

"Sorry Miss Bei Fong, but Katara's right," Hakoda told her with an apologetic smile. "If this mission is to succeed, no one can know that we are there. Especially if the Winds are going in as well," he mused.

"Yeah, what are we going to do about the Winds?" Sokka questioned seriously. "It's not their fault that _someone_ broke our alliance. Should we attack them if we see them?"

Hakoda shook his head. "No, I don't want to do anything to upset them anymore than they already are. In fact, once this has all settled down, I'm going to see if I can't explain what happened and hopefully revive our alliance. If you do come across any Winds, don't attack unless they attack you first. That way we can plead it as self-defense when we try to communicate with them again."

Katara was reminded of the letter she had received during the night and wondered if she should tell her father about it, but decided against it. He already had enough on his plate, he didn't need to worry about his daughter possibly getting killed by the Winds' top agent. "Okay, sounds like a plan," she finally said after a few moments of silence. "We should probably get going."

"Do you have all of your gear?" Hakoda asked seriously. Katara nodded. "Are you absolutely sure? You have your weapons, your guns, and your-"

"Yes dad," Katara laughed a little at his worry for them. "Don't worry, I've made sure that we have what we need."

Hakoda shook his head with a sad smile. "I can't help it. I'm a father. My job is to worry over you guys and do everything I can to make sure you come back alive."

Katara sighed and was reminded of her own potential death. "I know, but we'll be fine," she told him, unsure herself whether that was true or not. Even if it wasn't, she wouldn't tell him otherwise. Like her, her father understood that anything could happen on a mission, so if she did die, he wouldn't be too surprised.

"Okay," Hakoda agreed reluctantly before he stood up and gestured for them to follow. "Come on. We should get you to your jet." They all nodded and followed him to the hangar where a single jet waited for them.

"Wait a minute," Toph argued with a defiant look. "I'm not a flyer and how can we fly this big hunk of metal if we're underwater?" she asked seriously as she 'looked' at each of them.

Hakoda chuckled before he gave her a reassuring pat on the back. "Don't worry about it, Miss Bei Fong. You'll hardly even notice you're in the air. As for your second question-" he was cut off as the hangar doors opened to reveal blue skies above them. "Our headquarters are capable of going up and down, so the building is above water right now."

"Isn't that risky?" Sokka asked curiously as he looked above them at some passing clouds.

"Only if we're exposed for long periods of time, so I would suggest that you all get going," Hakoda shrugged before he pulled them in for a hug. "I love you kiddos. Be safe out there."

Katara was reluctant, but knowing that saying anything else would only make him more worried, she replied, "Don't worry dad, we'll be fine."

"I know," Hakoda smiled sadly and kissed her head and ruffled Sokka's hair. "Now go be the best spies in the world. And call me once you get there!" he yelled to them after stepping out of range of the jet. They nodded and waved goodbye as Sokka helped Toph into the jet while Katara took control. Smiling sadly one last time at her father, she waved and took off into the sky, hoping that it wouldn't be the last time she saw him.

"How long is it going to take to get there?" Sokka asked curiously as he sat in the co-pilot seat and looked at the map that was scanning for other vehicles.

Katara smiled a little, trying to keep a positive attitude as she flew to what might be her death. "It won't be long. With how fast this thing goes, we'll be there within an hour. Why don't you get some sleep? We'll be up all night trying to set up a base to use."

Sokka groaned a little as he remembered what they had to do. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he grumbled and let out a yawn. "Let me know if you need help with anything." Without another word, he went to the back of the jet and slumped down on the couch next to Toph who had also passed out, likely from boredom,, Katara assumed. Sighing slightly, she laughed a little as she saw Sokka was already snoring. That was a good sign. It meant Sokka wasn't too scared. Not as scared as she was, anyway. But if there was one thing Katara knew, it was that there was no room for fear on this mission, so she pushed it down and continued flying towards the island that could be her grave.

* * *

"Are we there yet?" Zuko complained as he continued staring out the window bored out of his mind. They had been flying for hours, and he didn't know how much more of it he could take.

Aang laughed a little. Normally people would get mad at someone who asked that question a thousand times, but he was the rare exception. He just found it amusing. "We're almost there, Zuko. A few more minutes and we'll land and set up a base for us to stay while we're on the island."

Suki, who had been trying her best to hold in her anger of Zuko asking that question a thousand times finally snapped. "And if I hear you ask that question one more time, I'm going to shave your head. Got it?" Zuko's eyes widened in surprise before he nodded quickly. "Good," she smirked before she looked back out her window and admired the sunset.

Zuko smiled as he looked at her through the jet's mirror. Even though she could sometimes have a temper, that was just one of the many things he loved about her. She wasn't like any girl he had met before, and it killed him not to know how she felt about him. _Now's not exactly the time to be thinking about that_, he chided himself before he resumed looking out his window. He gasped a little as he saw another jet with the Water Agency symbol on it. "Um, Aang?"

Aang looked back at him. "Yeah, buddy?"

"We might have a problem here. Aren't the Water Agents your enemies now, too?"

"Yeah..." Aang said in confusion before he put it on auto pilot and moved over to where Zuko was. Following his gaze, he gasped and looked back at Zuko. "That's who I'm supposed to take down."

"Enemy spotted," the jet spoke in the speakers surrounding them. "Operational machine gun at the ready." A machine gun stuck out of the jet's right side with the controls right in front of Zuko as it popped out of the floor.

Zuko grinned as he took the controls. "Let's just take them out right now. That way we only have one problem to worry about while we're there."

"Zuko, no! We could kill other Agents! I'm only after one!" Aang yelled, but it was too late. Zuko had already fired on the unsuspecting twins and the sleeping Earthbender as a blast of pure energy took out their left wing.

* * *

Katara's eyes started to droop as the hum of the plane made her feel drowsy. Just as sleep was about to claim her, loud alarms started going off in the speakers. Sokka snapped to attention as he looked around wildly with tired eyes. "What's going on?!" he yelled over the noise of the alarms.

With the alarms waking her back up, Katara quickly looked at the map and saw another ship to their left. "Uh oh," she muttered to herself before a large blast rocked their jet. Looking to her left, she saw half of the left wing being incinerated from enemy fire. "We're going down!" she yelled over the alarms as the plane pitched forward and started spiraling.

"What's all this racket?!" Toph complained as she finally woke up.

Katara, knowing what had to be done, got up quickly and grabbed their stuff. "Sokka, grab Toph and a parachute! We're going to have to jump out of here!"

Toph's eyes widened in shock and a noticeable amount of fear. "You said _what now_?!" she shrieked before Sokka picked her up and slung the parachute pack on his back. "I'm not going anywhere!" she refused adamantly as she kicked and fought.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Would you rather die?" he asked sarcastically over the rippling wind as the jet flew closer and closer to the island.

"Yes!" she yelled back honestly with heavy fear in her voice. Sokka just sighed and shook his head before he looked over to Katara.

"We're gonna need to jump out of here at the same time so we don't get smacked into the ground, okay?" she yelled to him as the jet got closer to the island. Sokka nodded in response as they walked over to the emergency hatch at the back of the jet. Pressing a button, the hangar door opened as the plane kept spiraling. The only thing that kept Katara and Sokka from being knocked out of it was the metallic feature of their combat boots that allowed them to stick to the metal floors. "Are you ready?" she yelled over the deafening roar of the wind. Sokka again nodded in response. After waiting a few moments for the jet to line up just right, Katara shouted, "JUMP!" before jumping herself with Sokka right behind her. As they fell, she couldn't help but admire the beauty of the island. If they weren't in danger for their lives, she likely would have taken a picture of it.

"Pull your chute, now!" Sokka yelled. Katara nodded and did as she was told, their chutes opening in perfect sync as they fell towards the deep waters below them. Sighing a little in relief, Katara looked again at the island. _For a cursed island, it sure doesn't look cursed,_ she thought as she gazed upon the lush center of land. After a few more minutes of their slowed descent, they landed in the water just off the shores.

Toph spit some water out of her mouth as they all resurfaced. "Never do that again," she warned Sokka with a finger against his chest. Sokka nodded quickly, again forgetting that she was blind. Assuming he nodded, she looked down before quickly kissing his cheek, making him blush heavily as he struggled to keep them both afloat. "That was for saving me."

"No problem," he laughed nervously before he composed himself and repeated in a fake deep voice, "No problem."

Toph just laughed and punched him in the arm, making him wince as he struggled to hold in a yelp. "Come on. We should get to land so we don't drown out here."

"She's right. Let's get onto land and get as far away from here as possible," Katara agreed as she moved some of her wet hair out of her eyes. "The ones who shot us down will probably look near the wreckage for us. The sooner we're out of sight, the sooner we don't have to worry about being attacked. At least for now," she amended. Sokka nodded in response as they swam back to shore, enjoying the feeling of solid ground beneath their feet when they finally reached land.

"Oh sweet Earth," Toph laughed gleefully as she flopped onto the ground and made a sand angel. "How I've missed you."

Katara laughed a little. "I'm glad we're on the ground too, but we need to get going. You can make all the sand angels you want once we're out of here."

Toph sighed and got up reluctantly. "Fine. Let's just get going."

"Where are we going?" Sokka asked as he moved over to grab their stuff.

"We're going to the East part of the island," Katara responded as she pulled out a soggy map from her jacket pocket. "There's plenty of cover there for us to make our base so that no one will be able to find it."

"Okay, let's get going then," Sokka shrugged and allowed Katara to lead the way. As they walked, Katara looked up in the sky and saw the other jet that had shot them down. She just hoped that they would at least wait to set up their base before they came after her. Then maybe she could have enough time to figure out a way to save her own life.


	3. To Kill or Not to Kill

Chapter 3: To Kill or not to Kill

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

Katara yawned loudly as she slowly woke. As promised, the three had spent all night making their base suitable for however long they would be there. It wasn't so much the building part of it that required their attention, as their base was pre-made and practically set itself up for them when they pressed a button. Rather what took their attention, and most of their sleep, was the organization of everything inside of it. There were many different items inside of the base, such as a kitchen, planning room, four bedrooms, and even a basement should things go awry. Though Katara supposed that wouldn't be of any help to them since there was little solid ground on this island, so a bunker wouldn't be very effective if they tried to put it underground. At any rate, there were many literal moving pieces of furniture and odds and ends that took most of their night. Even if they hadn't gotten much sleep, Katara was relieved to have it done so quickly. Usually it was just her and Sokka on their missions, and it would take all night for them to finish.

A loud noise came from outside her room, making her both curious and a little fearful. Her dreams had started much the same way, but this didn't appear to be a dream. Though she supposed that her dreams never appeared to be dreams until she had woken up. Regardless, she knew that she had to investigate. Getting up slowly, she made sure she had her water skin with her and her mother's switchblade that had been passed down to her after the funeral. Even if she never used it, she always made sure to have it with her. It was the only real thing she had left of her mother. It almost made it seem like her mother was there with her. Shaking these thoughts from her mind, she walked out of the room and looked around. There was no evidence of a break in, though a master spy wouldn't leave any if they were smart. Another loud noise came from downstairs as she ran down there, ready for a fight, but was surprised to find nothing. No enemy agent, nothing broken or on the floor. Everything looked just as she had left it before she went to bed. So why was she hearing things?

"You decided to show up, did you?" a voice said from behind her. Whipping around quickly, she was not so surprised to see the man who had been haunting her dreams since the night before. "Good," he continued while pulling out his dagger from his back. "That makes my job easier."

Katara was never one to back down from a fight, but there was something about his presence in the room… It seemed to emanate power. Pure power, as if his very being could incinerate her if he wished it. Taking a deep breath, she put away the switchblade in her hand and tried to talk it out. "Look, you're obviously the agent that's been sent after me. I understand that you have orders, but could you at least let me plead my case before you decide whether I should live or not?"

The man was silent, clearly conflicted as was shown on what she could see of his face. Katara understood him well. One thing about being an agent was that on most missions, your sense of duty would usually try to fight against reason, as agents were trained as soldiers: to do as they were ordered with no questions asked. Not that Katara hadn't asked questions about her orders, because she had, much to her Grandfather's disliking. After a few moments of silence, the man finally nodded and sheathed his blade. "Very well. I will hear what you have to say."

Relief, however temporary, flooded over Katara. She hadn't really expected him to be so willing to hear her out, but she was grateful nonetheless. Not wanting to waste any time or to provoke his ire, she began her case with a deep breath. "So," she started slowly. "I'm sure that your Agency has told you about what happened."

"Yes," he responded with a little anger evident in his voice. "They told me that you attacked one of my people. Do you know what happens to those who cross the Winds of Fate?"

Katara gulped and nodded quickly. "Yes, I know. And before you say anything else, I just want to say that I am truly and deeply sorry for attacking your brother," she told him, taking him by surprise at how sincere her words were. Not just because she feared for her life, but because she truly felt bad that she had wrongfully attacked someone. "It was a complete accident. My brother and I… we were on a mission and I felt someone coming up on me. I didn't know who it was, I didn't think to look before I striked, but all the same I did attack them. And I am _so_ sorry that I did."

"'Sorry' doesn't change things," the man decided as he took out his blade again, making Katara's heart pound painfully in her chest. "I'm sorry, but this is how it must be. May you rest in peace." Without another word, he lunged forward and stabbed her in the chest, ending her life as he yanked it out, making her fall to the ground dead at his feet.

* * *

Katara gasped as she shot up from her bed breathing heavily. _It was just a dream,_ she thought with a sigh of relief before annoyance overcame her as well. These dreams were really starting to bug her. Even if it was likely she wouldn't survive, she didn't want her last nights to be filled with dreams of her potential death. Taking a deep breath, she got up and changed into her clothes. There was work to be done, and she knew that if she let her brother and their new teammate wake up on their own, it wouldn't happen until at least noon. Making her way out of her room, she decided to wake her brother first, knowing he would likely be the easier of the two to awaken. With a quick knock on the door, she waited not so patiently for him to answer it. To her surprise, he opened up immediately. "What's up, sis?" he asked tiredly.

Still in shock from having him answer the door so quickly, she was silent for another moment before she snapped herself back to normal. "We need to get ready for the day. If we're going to get into the main building, we'll need to do some recon of the defenses and see if we can't figure out a way to get in," she finally told him.

Sokka groaned a little and nodded. "Okay, I'll get ready." He tried to shut the door quickly, but Katara held it open with her hand.

"How are you up so early?" she questioned him. "Usually it takes me at _least_ three times knocking on your door before I have to kick it open to wake you up." A sudden horrible thought crossed her mind. Not wanting to think about it but knowing it was a possibility, she looked over to Toph's room and was disgusted to find out her fear was true. Toph's bedroom door was wide open. "_Really_, Sokka? You just met her and you're already trying to get in her pants?" she asked, completely horrified at the thought of her brother and their new teammate doing… _that_.

Sokka smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Who said anything about _trying_? I do believe that I didn't _try _anything," he smirked, making Katara groan at her brother.

"You couldn't at least have waited until _after_ the mission was over?" she glared at him. "What if she gets pregnant?"

"Don't worry, that won't be a problem," he assured her. "You see, what we did was-"

Katara raised her hand quickly, not being able to hear any more without spilling her guts out all over the floor. "No, I'm done hearing this. Just get ready and make sure she's ready in an hour. Got it?" she threatened with a finger against his chest. He nodded quickly in response. "Good. And I don't want to hear _anything,_ and I mean _anything _about what you guys do. Got it?" He nodded again. She stomped off without another word, still in disbelief at her brother. Though she had known he was a young, she didn't think he would be stupid enough to hook up with a girl he had just met. And she was surprised that Toph had agreed to it. From what she had seen of her, she would have thought that Toph would rather beat up Sokka than do… _that _with him. Shaking her head from these thoughts, she made her way downstairs and started making some breakfast, doing her best to think of anything other than what she had just figured out.

* * *

Aang looked over his map of the island as he drank some coffee. He had never had trouble getting up early. Except for his teen years, he supposed, but his team had spent all night getting their base situated. Not that it was a problem, as they had gotten it out quicker than he had expected. Still, he was used to getting his usual eight hours of sleep and was currently running on six, making him a little slower than he usually was. Fortunately for him, all it took was a full cup of coffee and he would be back to himself in no time. As he took another sip, he pondered what he should do first. Obviously the main mission was more important than his hunt for the betrayer, but the betrayer was somewhere on the island. He had hoped to find whoever it was dead in the crashed jet that Zuko had shot down, but the evidence left behind by trailing footprints in the sand proved otherwise that there were survivors. Normally, if things were different he would have followed them and just gotten it over with, but he had to have a serious talk with Zuko.

Not that he wanted to belittle his best friend, but Zuko had done something impulsive that could have easily caused a full on agency war. That was the last thing any of them needed right now. After a long discussion about not acting on impulses and waiting for approval from Aang, Zuko understood and made clear his remorse, much to Aang's relief. He wasn't one to try to boss others around, but he was the leader of this mission, and he had to ensure that nothing like that would happen again. Shaking these thoughts from his mind, he returned his attention to the map and looked to where the footprints likely led. No doubt the tide had washed the footprints away by now, but he could still hazard a guess at where they were headed. As he looked closer at the East part of the island, he noticed a lush green land in the middle of the sector. _They wouldn't set up base on the sand, otherwise their base could easily sink into it,_ he mused in his mind. _So they would have to go for that land there. I don't need to find their base, but if I look around in that area, maybe I can find this 'Wave' and complete half of my mission._ Satisfied with his plan, he rolled up the map and stuck it in his other jacket pocket, making sure to keep it from his pistol and ammunition. The last thing they needed was to lose their only way of keeping track of the island. Normally, if this was any other place on Earth, the agency would be able to give him a digital map to use, but something was off about this island. Satellites couldn't get a good picture of it, as every time they had tried, something seemed to make it unviewable. No agent dared get close enough to it by aircraft unless they knew they would be there for a while. Other agents had attempted to survey it in their aircrafts, but enemy defenses had shot them down, never allowing any of them to return. It was rather inconvenient, but they had managed to procure a map of the island for them to use on the mission, much to Aang's relief. It was a large island, and he didn't want to try navigating it without some guidance.

"Aang?"

He turned around quickly to see Suki standing there with a plate of breakfast for him. "Oh, thanks," he laughed a little as he took it and started eating. "I didn't even hear you come in."

Suki laughed as well. "Yeah, I could tell when I had to basically yell at you." She sat down on his bed as he continued eating at his desk. "So, are you okay? You seem to be a little out of it," she asked worriedly with a concerned look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he assured her as he took another sip of his coffee, enjoying the feeling of it flooding through his system. "I'm just tired. Usually I get more sleep than this."

She smiled a little. "What, you can't function well without your usual eight hours of sleep?" she teased.

He chuckled. "Yeah, you could say that," he agreed as he took another sip. "That's why I'm having coffee. Somehow it makes me feel like I got two more hours of sleep just from drinking it."

"Probably because that thing's loaded with caffeine," she grinned as she took it from him and took a sip herself, making Aang give her a weird look. "What? You've never shared coffee before?"

"I have," he admitted before turning back to the map. "But usually I at least pour it out of my mug into another one if I do."

She shrugged and gave it back. "Well at least this way it's one less dish to do." He laughed a little and nodded before looking at the map again. "Come on, Aang. You've been staring at that map for hours. How about you take a break and have some fun?"

Aang gave her a look. "Suki, I already told you-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know what you told me," she cut him off with disappointment evident in her voice. "I'm not talking about that, I'm saying go swimming or something."

He looked at her in disbelief. "Suki, we're on a mission, not vacation. As much as I'd love to, we've got work to do. Or at least _I _do, anyway."

Suki gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean? We're all in this together, Aang. Whatever you're going to do, we're going with you."

"I know," he amended. "But that doesn't mean I can't go do some things myself while you guys have some fun. Lord knows Zuko would _love_ to have some alone time with you."

"Yeah, he probably would," she agreed with a grin as she thought about it. "But that doesn't mean you should have to go work while we get to have fun."

Aang shook his head. "I'm perfectly okay with it, Suki. I'm used to working on my own, anyway. Besides, it's only going to be for small things. I've just got a few errands to run, it's nothing big," he promised, knowing that she would agree if it wasn't anything that could get him killed.

"Okay," she sighed reluctantly. "If you say so. Just be careful," she almost begged.

"I'll be fine," he assured her as he stood up. "Now why don't you go ask Zuko to hang out while I'm off doing my errands." A question popped into his mind as he thought about the two of his friends. "Why do you keep chasing me? I know that you like Zuko," he bluffed, wanting to see if she would confess or not.

Suki blushed a little and looked away. "Okay… I _do_ like Zuko," she admitted, making him proud of himself he had gotten her to confess. "But I like you too, Aang."

"I know," Aang said simply as he started grabbing his stuff. "But you already know that I think that we're better off as friends. Instead of waiting for me to change my mind, how about you go out with Zuko who practically worships the ground you walk on?" he advised.

She thought about it for a few moments before she nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she reluctantly agreed. "Still, I wish that you would just give me a chance."

Aang patted her on the back with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Suki, but although I do find you attractive, I only think of you as a friend. Besides, I couldn't do that to Zuko. He would do anything to be with you."

"Yeah… he would, wouldn't he?" Suki thought with a smile.

"No doubt about it," Aang chuckled as he put his jacket on. "Just give him a chance, I don't think you'll regret it. Have fun!" he called as he walked out of the room and made his way to the living room where he knew his best friend would be.

Zuko looked up from the TV he was watching and noticed Aang. "Hey, Aang. Where are you going?" he asked curiously.

"I'm running some errands," he responded with a grin. "I'll be back in a little bit."

"Okay," Zuko shrugged before returning his attention to the TV. Aang laughed a little, making Zuko look at him again. "What's so funny?" he asked in confusion.

Aang laughed again and leaned into him. "Let's just say… you owe me big time."

Zuko raised a brow. "Why do I owe you? What did you do?" he asked worriedly, his fear of what might have happened growing with every passing second as he searched his friend's face.

"I may have nudged Suki your way," Aang grinned slyly before walking out. "See ya later, buddy!" Zuko's eyes noticeably widened as he walked out, making him snicker as he made his way to the East side of the island. _Should be interesting to see how that works out_, he thought to himself as he put his hood on and continued walking. Though he had promised Suki it wouldn't be dangerous, he knew that he may have lied to her. He had no clue whether these other agents would be hostile or not, but considering what he had heard from 'The Wave', he wouldn't be surprised if they attacked him on sight. Aang liked working with his friends, but this was something he had to do on his own. If not for the sake of keeping them alive, for the sake of him being able to sneak around. Because if there was one thing he had learned about his friends, it was that they were _not_ quiet. Sure, they could move stealthily, but they were also very chatty, especially so at the worst of times. For instance, like on a surveillance mission to find a target that Aang had to hunt down. They were great for if he needed a distraction to open up an area, but otherwise he knew they would probably blow their cover if not controlled properly. Shaking these thoughts from his mind, he continued his walk when he heard a crunch behind him. Turning around quickly, he was surprised to see his 'pets' had followed him.

"Hey guys," he smiled at them as he walked over and patted Appa on the head and stroked Momo's head, making them both hum in contentment. "Are you guys here to help me out?"

Appa barked while Momo chirped, making him smile. "Great. Let's get going. We need to see if we can't find the other agents' base." Appa barked again and they all made their way back to the beach where the remains of the jet had crashed, making Aang look at it in amazement. It was almost exactly like his, except with the symbol of the Water Agency on its side. Otherwise it was a complete match. Looking around, he tried to find the footprints that had led to where the Agents had gone, but was not surprised to see that they had indeed been washed by the tide. "Yeah, I thought so," sighed to himself before an idea came to mind. "Appa, do you think you could track their scents back to where they were headed?"

Appa barked and wagged his tail before sniffing around the beach until he found where the trail began. The scent uploaded into his matrix as his scanners revealed the trail the three had left behind. Barking again, he led the way as Aang and Momo followed him to the East side of the island. Before long, they had reached the lush part of the East sector, but was surprised to see nothing there, at least from what Aang could see of it.

"Momo," he turned to his hawk. "Could you go up there and see if you can spot any kind of camp? We need to know where their location is so we can make a plan to get in."

Momo chirped and took off his shoulder into the sky. Searching with his heightened vision, he scanned over the lush area and was surprised to find nothing there. He went quickly back to his master and shook his head.

"You couldn't find anything, huh?" Aang asked him. He chirped sadly and looked down, feeling as if he had failed his master. Aang gave him a reassuring pat on the head and tried to think when an idea came into mind. Looking closely at him, he noticed a button that read "Invisibility cloak sensor". "There we go," he grinned as he pushed it. "Now go check again. You should be able to find something now." Momo chirped again and took off into the sky, coming back a few minutes later with a happy chirp. "Did you find something?"

A projector came out of his chest, displaying a miniature map of the Jungle area. "Let's see," Aang mused as he looked it over and found a large building with large devices on each level. "Those must be what are keeping it invisible. Good job, Momo!" Momo chirped happily as Aang took off into the small Jungle with Appa hot on his tail. Before long, Aang stood twenty feet away from where the invisible building was on the map. "So this is where they're located," he thought aloud as he tried to see if there was any part of the building that was visible, but found none as he continued to look at it. Scanning it over one more time, he noticed what looked like the outline of a door by a tree, making him smile as a plan came to mind. Pressing a button on his ear piece, he called his friends. "Suki, Zuko. I'm sending you guys my location. Make your way over here. I've got a plan…"

* * *

Katara sighed impatiently as she waited for her brother and his new, she fake gagged, _girlfriend_, she supposed she would have to call her now to get ready. She had told them to be ready in an hour, but two hours later, she was still waiting, much to her annoyance. Was it really too much to ask for them to be on time when she asked them to? Couldn't they just act like the adults they were and help her when they had stuff they needed to do? Apparently not, as she was the one who had been ready to go for hours.

After a few more minutes of waiting, Sokka and Toph finally came downstairs, much to Katara's relief. "Finally! What took you guys so long?" she questioned angrily.

Sokka shrugged. "We were trying to get some more sleep since we… stayed up a little longer," he admitted sheepishly, making her groan as she was reminded of what had happened.

"Well you can sleep later," she rolled her eyes. "We've got more important stuff to do right now. You know, like trying to figure out a way to get into a heavily guarded enemy base?"

Toph snorted as she blew some hair out of her face. "Oh relax, Sugar Queen. We've got all day. It's not like we have a deadline or anything."

Katara didn't want to take the focus off the mission, but she couldn't help herself. "_Sugar Queen_?" she asked incredulously.

"Because most of the time you're sweet as sugar," Toph grinned. "Except right now, when you're kind of acting like a bitch."

Katara gasped. "I am _not_ acting like a-" she cut herself off, knowing if she said one swear word that she would end up cussing Toph out. And the last thing they needed was a divided team for a serious mission like this. "Fine, call me whatever you want, but do _not_ call me anything like _that_. Okay?"

"Who made you the boss?" Toph shot back.

"My father," Katara responded somewhat angrily, doing her best to keep her temper in check. "He made me the leader, and apparently I'm the only one here who knows that this mission is serious and won't sleep with someone I just met and show up an hour later than was politely asked of!" she felt her temper start to get out of control before she forced herself to take a deep breath. "Look, we can complain about each other all we want later, when this mission is _over_. Can we at least agree on that?"

Toph was silent for a moment before she let out a long sigh. "Fine. Just don't try to get too bossy with me. Even if you're the leader, I won't let anyone boss me around too much. Got it?"

Katara took another deep breath and nodded in agreement. "Okay, but when it comes to things that are serious, you need to listen to me. It's the only way we're going to make it out of this alive. Got it?" she echoed sarcastically.

Toph was silent again for another moment before she burst out laughing, taking both Katara and Sokka by surprise. After a few moments, Toph settled down and grinned at her. "You know what, Sugar Queen? I like you," she decided and punched her in the arm, making her wince. "You've got the stuff. I'll listen to you."

"Great," Katara sighed in relief before turning to her brother. "Agreed, Sokka?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I think I can wait to complain about you until we're out of here. Though it won't be easy," he snickered, making her roll her eyes.

"Whatever. Grab your gear and meet me by the door," she ordered.

"Yes, Ma'am," Toph sarcastically saluted before walking back upstairs to grab her things. Katara looked at her brother who was still laughing.

"You too, Sokka." He stopped laughing and rolled his eyes before going upstairs, leaving Katara wondering how she had gotten such dysfunctional teammates for such a serious mission. A few minutes later, they both came down in their jackets and weapons. "Are you guys ready?"

Toph grinned and cracked her knuckles. "Let's do this thing! I'm ready to smash some skulls in!" she cheered.

Katara rolled her eyes. She had hoped that Toph would be a friend she could talk to about girl stuff, but the more time she spent with her, the more obvious it was that it wouldn't happen. "Okay, let's go," she sighed and put her hood on before opening the door. They all filed out and closed the door behind them, ensuring no one would be able to get in without their say so. Katara turned around to face them. "Okay, so here's the plan. We obviously need to see if there's a way that we can sneak in to get the information we're looking for, so we'll walk along the outskirts of the base and look for any weak entrances that we can slip through. If we find anything, we'll come back here and make a plan to get inside. Sound good?" They both nodded. "Great. Let's get going." Leading the way, she started walking North, looking at various plants and animals along the way.

"It's so hot out here," Sokka complained as he waved his hand over his face. "Do we have to wear these jackets?"

Katara gave him a look. "You know we do, Sword." For some reason, Sokka had insisted that his codename be 'Sword' but it was better than the ones she thought he would have come up with. With that thought in mind, she looked at Toph as they continued walking. "What's your codename?"

"You can just call me Bandit," she shrugged as she fanned herself. "My full title's 'The Blind Bandit', but just Bandit will do while we're on a mission."

"Okay," Katara shrugged simply before returning her attention to where they were walking. A crunch could be heard from behind them, making them all whip around as they prepared themselves for a fight, but saw nothing. "Well that was odd," Katara thought aloud.

A loud shriek could be heard from their left. "What was that?" Sokka asked fearfully as he looked around.

Toph stomped on the ground to get a good 'look' at her surroundings. "Let's see… there's a few animals behind us, a large rock in front of us-"

"HELP!" a woman screamed, making them all jump at the unexpected cry for help. "SOMEBODY HELP US!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

Sokka looked to Katara. "We have to help them! It sounds like they're in danger!" He took off running with Toph right behind him.

"Wait a minute!" she called to them. "It might be a-" she stopped herself as she saw that they were out of sight. "A trap," she finished with a sigh as she started running after them. Knowing they would need back up, she ran as fast as she could after them, but did not find any trace of them as she ran. "Sword! Bandit! Where are you?!" she yelled loudly.

Sokka and Toph kept running, trying to find where the scream had come from. "Can you feel where she is, Bandit?" he asked as he breathed heavily.

Toph nodded. "Yeah, there's two people being cornered by some animals a hundred feet away, but there's something… _off_ about the animals."

"We'll worry about that when we get there," he shook his head. "Right now they need our help."

Toph looked at him in confusion. "I thought Sugar Queen would be the one wanting to help them and you being the pessimistic one?"

Sokka shrugged as they continued running. "She usually is, but when we're on a mission, she knows it's likely a trap."

"So you know that this is probably a trap and you're going to help them anyway?" Toph asked in bewilderment as they finally reached a clearing where two people were surrounded by a tiger and a vulture backing them against a tree, saving him from the embarrassment of having to answer.

"Somebody help!" the woman yelled fearfully as the animals got closer. "Please!"

Sokka finally came running up to the animals and noticed something different about them. Not only were they larger than what he had seen of their kind, they looked almost… _metallic_. Shaking his head from these thoughts, Toph and him stopped behind the animals and got into a defensive position. "Hey, uh… animals! Look over here!"

The woman smirked ever so slightly, just enough for him to not notice. The animals turned around and pounced on them without giving them a chance to do anything else, holding them down by their throats as the man and woman stood up and grinned at each other. "Told you it would work," she smirked smugly at her companion.

Zuko rolled his eyes but smiled a little as they put their jackets back on. "Yeah, yeah. I got it. So what do I owe you?"

Suki thought about it for a moment before she smiled slyly and put her hood on. "How about a kiss?"

"Uh…" Zuko's eyes widened in surprise with a deep blush as he put his on. "Um, I…"

She just laughed at his nervousness. "It's okay, we'll deal with your payment later," she promised with a wink, making him blush more.

Toph glared at Sokka. "So you led us into a trap knowing it was probably a trap, huh?"

Sokka smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

Suki laughed at them. "Wow, you knew that you were probably walking into a trap and did it anyway? No offense, but that _really_ wasn't smart."

"I'll say," Zuko laughed as he looked down at their captives.

"What are you going to do with us?" Toph questioned angrily as she tried to break free from Momo's grip, but his talons were too close for her to struggle much without getting seriously hurt.

"Oh relax," Suki chuckled. "We're only after your friend. Whatever their name was." She looked to Zuko. "What was it again?"

He thought about it for a moment before he snapped his fingers. "The Wave," he replied as he remembered.

Suki nodded and looked back to them. "Right. This 'Wave' person. Once our leader has… _dealt_ with them, you'll be free to go. I would normally offer to join forces to get the real mission done, but I'm sure that you guys won't want to after your friend is gone."

Sokka snarled and tried to get up, but Appa extended his claws until it was at the base of his throat. "Don't touch my sister!" he yelled furiously.

"It's nothing personal," Suki assured him as she looked at her nails. "The Wind just has orders. What do you expect when she attacked one of his own? The Winds would never let something like that go unanswered."

Sokka struggled a little more, but knew that it wasn't doing him any good. "Please be careful, sis," he whispered to himself as he worried for her.

* * *

Katara continued running through the jungle, but still couldn't find anything as she searched for her teammates. After some more running, she ran out of breath and looked around at her surroundings. It was quiet. A little _too _quiet. A branch snapped from behind her as she whirled around with her switchblade at the ready, but there was no one there.

Finally getting frustrated, she yelled, "Bandit! Sword! Where are you?!" There was no response. Letting out a long sigh, the sound of something dropping came from her left as she noticed something out of place on the jungle ground. Fear settled over her as she wondered if she was being watched. Making sure she had a firm grip on her blade, she slowly walked over to the disturbance and looked down, her breath catching in her throat as she saw a rock with the symbol of the Wind Agency carved into it. _Oh no_, she thought, but it was too late. Feeling a presence behind her, she quickly turned around and looked up to see a man in a hood jump down from a tree, colliding with her as their blades met, sending a loud _clang!_ throughout the jungle as metal met metal. They fought for dominance as Aang struggled to get the upper hand. Strength was on his side, but Katara was quick and more easily able to move than him.

"Just surrender now and make it quicker!" Aang yelled as he tried to move her blade from her chest. "It would make it a lot easier for both of us!"

Katara's fear was at an all time high with flashes of her nightmares coming back to her, but she knew that she couldn't let it get to her. If she wanted to live, she would have to put it aside. "You know I can't do that," she gritted out through her teeth before rolling them around. After a few more minutes of struggling, they rolled right into a tree and got the air knocked out of their lungs as they flopped onto the ground with her beneath him, their hoods being knocked off as they hit the tree. Aang managed to catch his breath first and pressed his blade against her throat when he saw her face, gasping at how beautiful she was. When Katara had enough oxygen in her system to think, she looked up at him angrily but gasped as well. He was gorgeous.

A few moments of silence passed as they wordlessly stared into each others eyes, wondering what they should do as they found they couldn't take their eyes off of each other. "Just do it," Katara finally decided to speak, not even caring if she died now. Something about him made her feel as if meeting him was all she needed out of her life, and that she would die content from seeing his face. "I understand. But before you do, I want to say I'm sorry."

Aang's eyes widened in surprise. "You're sorry?" he asked in disbelief, completely unable to tear his eyes away from hers.

She nodded once, afraid anything more would slit her throat before she could finish her thoughts. "Yeah. I really am sorry. I never wanted to attack your people. It was an accident," she explained before taking a deep breath. "I just wanted you to know that before you do this." Taking one last long look at him, she smiled a little, no longer fearing her death. "Go ahead. I'm ready. "

Aang was silent as he stared into her beautiful eyes. The part of him that was trained to take orders without question screamed at him to complete his mission, but he couldn't. Seeing her die would likely make _him _die, too.

"Aang?" Suki called out for him from twenty feet away. "Where are you?"

He quickly snapped out of his thoughts as he feared his friends would see him. As much as he knew he should, he knew that he couldn't go through with this. Getting up quickly, he offered his hand. "Come on, you need to get out of here."

Katara's eyes widened in surprise. "What?"

"There's no time!" Aang whispered as he forced her back up and led her away to another clearing, ensuring that his friends hadn't seen them before he turned back to her. "Go back to your base. I'll tell my friends that you got away and that I'll have to track you down again. And don't worry, I'll make sure your friends are sent back without a scratch."

Katara couldn't believe it. This was the exact opposite of what she thought would happen. "Go!" he ordered as he looked around frantically for his friends who were no doubt looking for him.

Finally snapping out of her surprise, she nodded and started walking away before she looked back at him, not wanting to leave without at least knowing how she could talk to him again. "I-"

"You really need to go!" he whisper-shouted to her. "My friends are almost here! GO!" Knowing he was absolutely serious, she started running back to their base, but not without sneaking one last look at him and saw that he was watching her go.

"Go," he mouthed to her before he put his hood on and took off back into the jungle, leaving her wondering what had just happened… and when she would be able to see him again.


	4. An Unapproved Meeting

Chapter 4: An Unapproved Meeting

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* * *

"What do you mean 'she got away'?" Suki questioned him as they walked back to their base. After sending the girl off, though he wished he could have gotten her name first, he ran back to his friends and told them what he promised her he would. They were not taking it very well, or at least Suki wasn't, anyway. "You never let _any_ of your targets get away."

Aang simply shrugged as he continued walking. "Usually I don't, but this time I didn't have any control in the situation," he lied. He felt bad for not being truthful with his friends, but after meeting that girl, something about her made him completely unable to complete that part of his mission. He didn't know what it was, but he knew he needed to find out. "I don't know how, but she managed to catch me as I was about to jump her and we ended up struggling where she slammed me against a tree and took the wind out of me. By the time I had caught my breath, she was long gone."

Suki groaned in frustration. "Great. This was supposed to be the _easy_ part of the mission. Now not even _this_ is easy."

"It's going to be okay, Suki," he assured her with a pat on the back. "I'm going to track her down again and I'll get her. Next time I just won't let her slam me against a tree," he joked, making her and Zuko laugh.

"Okay," she agreed with a smile. "If you say so." They finally reached the base and walked in. Taking their seats at the table, Aang grabbed some water bottles from their fridge and sat down with them.

"So, what were your 'prisoners' like?" he asked curiously as he opened his and took a sip.

Suki smirked as she looked at Zuko who smirked in return. "They walked into our trap knowing it was probably a trap but did it anyway."

Aang's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at them both in disbelief. "Really?"

"Yep," Zuko chuckled as he chugged half of his and let out a satisfied sigh. "While we were putting on our little play, we heard them talking about it. Some spies they are," he snickered.

Aang couldn't help but laugh with him. "Yeah, I wouldn't say they're the greatest spies in the world," he agreed as he took another sip. "So, as much as I know that we should try to take out this other agent, we should probably focus on the main mission right now," he told them, doing his best not to show how he really didn't want to go hunting for her again.

Suki nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right, The main mission is more important right now." She looked out the window and saw the setting sun. "It's too late now for us to go do some recon, so we'll have to do it in the morning."

"Okay," Zuko nodded. "How are we going to get in, though? The place looks like a fortress."

"It might as well be," Aang laughed a little. "The whole perimeter is filled with guards and defensive weapons. If we want to get in, we're going to need to find a hole in their defenses."

"Or create one," Suki added as she drank some more water. "If there's a weak spot in their defenses, maybe we can figure out a way to take out the guards and disable their weapons so that we can get in without much hassle."

Aang thought it over and slowly nodded. "Yeah, that could work. Let's just see what we're dealing with and make our decision then. Sound good?" They both nodded. "Great. Now how about we eat something? I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving."

Zuko nodded quickly while his stomach growled, making him blush in embarrassment as his teammates laughed at his hunger. "Sounds good to me. What do we have?"

"Zuko, you know we have a machine that can _literally_ make you anything you want," Aang laughed as he gestured to the machine on the kitchen counter.

"Oh yeah," Zuko smiled sheepishly. "I forgot about that." Everyone got up and made their way over to the machine and put in their orders. Within minutes, everyone was sitting down and enjoying their meals.

Suki smiled as she ate her pasta. "This is the best pasta I've had in a long time. I can't believe they made a machine that can make food out of thin air."

Aang chuckled as he took a bite of his steak. "It's not just out of thin air, Suki. There's apparently water mixed with… something scientific that I don't remember that mix together and somehow makes it."

"Who cares how it works? I'm just happy that it _works_," Zuko grinned as he took a bite out of his pizza. Aang just laughed at his friend and continued enjoying his meal as he thought about all that had happened that day. Flashes of the beautiful girl kept going through his mind as he thought, making him feel a strange feeling he had never felt before. _What is this feeling?_ he thought to himself.

"Aang!"

Aang quickly snapped out of his thoughts and looked up to see Suki waving her hand at him. "Oh sorry, Suki. What's up?"

Suki looked at him in concern. "Aang, are you okay? Ever since we've come back from the mission, you seem… a little off."

"I'm alright, Suki," Aang laughed a little, trying to cover up the nervousness that had nested deep within him. As much as he hated lying to his friends, he knew that if they knew the truth they would freak out and try to talk him out of it. And he just couldn't. Even with everything in him that was a spy screaming at him to take her life, something about her made him completely unable to. They had just met, and yet… it seemed like he had known her for a lifetime. "Sorry, I'm still a little tired from last night."

She didn't seem to believe him, but after a few moments of silence she nodded. "Okay… if you say so." They continued eating their meals in a comfortable silence and talked for a little they all grew tired. "Well," Suki started with a yawn. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired. I'm gonna go to bed."

"Yeah, me too," Zuko agreed as he stood up and stretched. "I don't know why, but pretending to be cornered by animals seems to have taken a lot out of me."

Aang laughed a little and patted him on the back. "Well then why don't you get some sleep? I'm sure you could use some after such a hard day," he teased, making Zuko chuckle as they started heading upstairs. Making their way to their rooms, they all wished each other goodnight and went to their rooms. Though Aang had other plans than sleep. He needed to figure out what was going on, and the only way he saw doing that was by talking to the girl again. Fortunately for him, he knew his friends well enough to know that they would be asleep within half an hour. After waiting that long, he was reassured by the snoors he heard coming from the adjacent rooms and got himself ready. Quietly sneaking downstairs, he put his jacket and shoes on and saw Appa and Momo looking at him.

"Hey guys," he grinned and walked over to them to pet them. "I'm gonna go for a walk, so I'll be back in a little bit."

Appa barked, and somehow Aang knew exactly what he was saying.

"No, I'll be fine. Just stand guard over the base and make sure no one comes here, okay?" he told them. Appa barked and Momo chirped. "Good. I'll be back in a little bit," he promised before slowly walking out of the building and making his way to the East side of the island. _This should be interesting_, he thought as he walked.

* * *

Katara was a bit of a mess as she waited for her brother and his girlfriend to come back. She thought that she would be dead by now, but the one who was ordered to kill her decided to let her go. _On purpose_. Why did he do that? Why would he directly disobey his orders just to make sure that she survived? Something had happened between them, but Katara wasn't sure what exactly it was. She had never felt like that before. No guy had ever made her feel anything more than friendship, but this guy… something about him made her be okay with dying since she got to meet him. What was this feeling?

The front door opened to reveal Sokka and Toph walking in. "Sokka!" Katara gasped and ran up to give him a hug. "Are you okay?"

Sokka hugged her back. "Yeah, we're fine. We thought that you were going to die, though. The lady screaming was a trap. They said that they were going to kill you."

"I'm fine, Sokka," she assured him as she pulled back and sat down again. "While I was looking for you guys, the agent I told you about _did _come after me but-"

"But you kicked his butt and sent him running with his tail between his legs?" Sokka asked proudly.

Katara rolled her eyes at her brother. "No, Sokka. He almost killed me. He caught me by surprise and tried to get me. We struggled and somehow lost our hoods as we struggled into a tree and landed with him on top of me. I thought that he was going to kill me, but when we looked at each other…" she blushed as she remembered the memory.

"What?" Sokka questioned with a hint of suspicion as he noticed her blush.

She shook her head quickly. "It doesn't matter. Anyway, we looked at each other and I thought he was going to kill me, but then his friends were trying to find him and he told me to go."

Sokka's eyes widened to the size of plates. "What?! Why would he do that?" he wondered, not that he was complaining though.

"I have no idea," Katara shrugged, still trying to figure that out herself. All she knew was that she wanted to see him again. Even if that meant she would have to sneak out to go find him. "It doesn't matter. I'm alive, so I'll just have to take what I can get."

Toph finally spoke up, "Yeah, you got that right. One of the top agents in the four agencies decided not to kill you. No one's ever been that lucky before."

Katara smiled a little as she thought about it. Even if she had feared him after finding out that he was being sent after her, she was glad that she had met him. Something about him seemed to have… woken her up. As if she was asleep until she had seen his face. It was new, this feeling. She didn't entirely understand it, but the only she could figure to try to figure it out was by talking to him again. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she agreed before she looked back to Sokka. "So what exactly happened with you guys?"

"Well," Sokka started as he sat down at the table. "We took off running and found the lady and her boyfriend being backed against a tree by a couple of animals. We ran up there-"

"Knowing that it would probably be a trap," Toph broke in angrily with a glare at him.

Sokka gulped and nodded slowly. "Right, that," he laughed nervously before he resumed his tale. "Then we got their attention and they pounced on us. The animals we're pretty realistic, but it turned out that they were robots."

"Wow," Katara breathed as she tried to imagine that. "Well they just let you go?" she asked curiously.

He nodded. "Yeah. Even before their leader said to let us go, they said that they had no interest in hurting us. They just needed to keep us down so he could get to you."

She nodded as well as she thought about it. "Well I'm glad that they at least were nicer to you guys. I'm sorry I got you in that position."

"Hey, I'm just happy that you're okay," Sokka laughed a little. "I was really worried for you."

Katara rolled her eyes but couldn't hide the smile on her face. "Thanks, Sokka. Glad to know that you have _so much_ faith in my abilities."

"You're the one who said the only reason you're alive is because the guy decided to let you go," Sokka pointed out with a shrug. "What did you expect? I'm your older brother. My job's to worry about you."

"Yeah, yeah," Katara waved him off, having heard that speech a thousand times. "I get it. Though I have to admit, I'm still surprised that he let me go."

Sokka nodded as he looked to be wondering that himself. "Yeah, why _would_ he do that? There's no advantage to it. Maybe he has a crush on you," he joked, unknowingly making Katara blush as she thought of that possibility.

"Heh heh. Yeah," she tried to play it off but her blush hadn't gone away. Sokka looked at her suspiciously, making her nervous. She cleared her throat and willed her blush to go away, but it wouldn't. "So," she started as she got up. "It's kind of late, but I need some fresh air. I'll be back in a little bit."

Sokka looked at her in disbelief. "Katara, the most dangerous agent in the world is after you, and you're going out there alone?"

She just scoffed as she put her jacket on. "I'll be fine, Sokka. I can handle myself. I'll be back in a little bit," she promised before she ran out the door, not giving him a chance to argue further. With a sigh of relief, she started walking through the jungle and looked around. She had always heard that jungles were supposed to be dangerous, but the most dangerous animal she had seen so far was a lobster on the shore. The thought made her laugh as she continued walking and noticed a small clearing with a rock that would be perfect for sitting. Making her way over to it, she sat down and enjoyed the night sky and the millions of stars that she loved to watch. Ever since she was young, she had always been fascinated with the stars. It never failed to amaze her just how many there were in the sky.

"Yeah, I like the stars too," a voice said from… _above_ her? She looked up in time to see the man in the hood jump down from a tree and land in front of her.

She blushed a little as she remembered their moment in the jungle. "Um, hi," she greeted him shyly before she got angry at herself. _Get ahold of yourself, Katara!_ She chided herself.

Aang smiled a little and nodded to her before taking his hood off. "Hi." They both sat their in an awkward silence, neither knowing what to say. After a few moments, Aang decided to take the initiative. "Look, I know that I'm supposed to kill you, but… I just couldn't," he admitted with a sigh, taking her by surprise.

"Really?"

He nodded slowly. "I don't know why. I mean, I'm an agent," he shrugged as he sat next to her, causing both of their hearts to beat painfully in their chests. "My whole life I was taught to take my orders and carry them out, but when I saw you… I just couldn't do it. I wish I knew why, though." He took a deep breath and looked at her. "I'm not sure if it's just because I'm attracted to you or if there's something more to it."

Her heart thundered in her chest as she looked him in the eye. "Y-you're attracted to me?" she asked in disbelief.

A small blush crept over his face as he avoided her eyes. "Well… yeah. You're beautiful. How could I not be?" He paused and looked down at his feet. "But that shouldn't be enough for me to not be able to kill you, so there must be something else going on." He turned to look at her. "Are you an old friend that I don't quite remember or something? I don't understand why I can't do it."

Katara tried to think about it, but she didn't recall meeting him at all before. "No, I don't think so," she told him with a shake of her head. "I don't remember meeting you anywhere. The only reason why _I _knew of you before we met was because your brothers and sisters were talking about you."

"Really?" he asked with a chuckle to which she nodded to. "What did they say about me?"

"They basically just said that you were going to be their champion and that…" she trailed off, wondering how much she should tell him.

Aang rolled his eyes a little at his teammates. "They told you about the legend, didn't they?" Katara nodded slowly in response. "Of course they did," he laughed. "My people might be deadly, but they are _very_ bad about keeping secrets."

She looked at him sharply. "So does that mean…"

He grinned a little and Earthbent some earth into one hand while he held a flame in the other. "Yeah, the legend is true."

"Wow," Katara breathed in amazement as she looked at him. "It must be pretty cool to be able to bend all of the elements."

"It can be," he agreed as he put the elements away. "But everything comes with a price."

Katara gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean? Isn't it really exciting to be the Peacekeeper? I thought anyone would be excited about that."

Aang was silent for a moment before he shrugged. "I'm sure that other people who haven't gone through what I've gone through would think it's cool, but they don't understand what comes with it," he admitted with a sigh, making her concerned for him as she felt her motherly instincts kick in.

"What do you mean?" she questioned as she gave him a hug, taking him by surprise before he finally hugged her back. They both enjoyed the feeling of being in each others' arms, but made sure to keep it short so as to not make it more awkward.

"Being the Peacekeeper means you have a lot of responsibility," he explained as he looked up at the stars. "Ever since they figured out what I was, they prepared me for what I would have to do. Not to mention that I was pretty much excluded from all games as a kid because 'it wouldn't be fair' to whatever team I wasn't on."

Katara looked at him sadly. "I'm so sorry to hear that," she murmured. "That must have been awful."

He shrugged it off as he looked away. "You get used to it after a while. Besides, we're agents. We're not supposed to complain about this kind of stuff."

"That doesn't fix things," Katara argued as she put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Well… if you ever want to talk about it, I'll always be here for you."

Although he knew her words were sincere, he smiled sadly. "As much as I appreciate that, that's just not true. Once this mission is over, we'll have to go back to being enemies."

"No we don't," she shook her head defiantly. "If we can just explain why I attacked your brother, maybe we can convince them to become allies again. Then maybe we could be together," she thought aloud, making her blush heavily as she avoided his eyes.

A large blush spread over his cheeks as he looked away. "Well…" he finally started after a few moments of awkward silence. "We could definitely try to mend the bridges that were burned. It's not like we _want_ to be your guys' enemies. We just didn't know what to think when we heard that you had attacked them."

Katara looked down, feeling ashamed of herself. "Yeah, I really am sorry about that," she sighed. "Like I said, it was an accident. I had no idea that he was a Wind."

Aang took her hand in his and squeezed it, making her blush as she looked up into his eyes. "It's okay, I understand. Being on a mission can often make you react before you think, so I know what you mean." He paused and looked down at their joined hands. He knew that this wasn't the best time for this, but he needed to figure out what was going on with him. Not once had he ever questioned his orders throughout his whole training to be a spy, and he was ordered to kill a girl that he couldn't bring himself to kill? Before anything else could be done, he needed to figure out what exactly was going on with him to make him feel so weak whenever she was around. "Look, I know that this isn't exactly the best time for this, but… I need to figure out what's going on with me."

"What do you mean?" Katara asked in confusion as she looked back up to him.

He brought up their joined hands. "This. Being around you… I don't know," he sighed as he looked down at his feet. "When I first saw you, I… I couldn't think right," he admitted, making her blush as she waited for him to continue. "Something about seeing you for the first time…I just sort of forgot about everything around me." He laughed a little. "I think I even forgot my own name.

"I think I know what you mean," Katara admitted as she looked down at their still intertwined hands. "When you attacked me, I was doing everything I could to stay alive, but when I saw your face…" she trailed off, not knowing quite how to describe it. "Something about you made me be okay with dying. Like all I really needed was to meet you for me to be happy and die content."

"What does that mean?" Aang asked himself more than her. "I don't understand it. I've never felt like this before." He sighed and looked over to her. "I shouldn't, but… I think I really want to kiss you right now," he admitted, making her blush as she looked into his eyes.

Katara felt herself leaning in as she got lost in his eyes. "I think I really want to kiss you too," she whispered before their lips collided, sending a spark shooting through their systems as they met. Their brains were fried in the kiss, leaving them acting purely on instinct as Aang wrapped his arms around her waist and Katara's went around his neck, pulling him as close to her as possible. After a few moments, they slowly pulled away and smiled at each other.

"That was…" Aang started breathlessly.

"Amazing," Katara agreed with a smile before she pulled him back in for another kiss. Aang's reason started to take him over as he pulled away, making her frown. "What's wrong?"

Aang shook his head. "Nothing's wrong, it's just that I'm supposed to kill you, and here I am kissing you." He laughed a little at himself. "I don't even know your real name."

Katara thought about it as she realized she didn't know his. "Oh yeah, I guess I don't know yours either," she laughed sheepishly before she stuck awkwardly stuck her hand out to him. "I'm Katara."

"Aang," he replied as he shook it. As soon as they had gotten a good shake in, Katara yanked him back to her lips and enjoyed his taste. Not expecting her to be so forward, his eyes sunk closed in bliss for a few moments before reason came back and he pulled away. "We shouldn't be doing this. We hardly even know each other."

"Well, let's get to know each other then," Katara suggested with a smile without skipping a beat, completely undeterred by his objections. "Tell me about yourself."

He thought about it for a few moments. "Well… I already told you my name, so I don't think I'll need to go over that again, unless you forgot it already," he joked, making her giggle as he listened to her melodic laugh.

"Nope, I remember," she promised once her giggles had settled. "Continue please," she requested politely.

"Okay, well other than that, there's not much to tell," he shrugged. "I was born into the Winds, and have been trained since I was eight years old to be a spy."

"So you're twenty years old?" Katara asked curiously to which he nodded. "Wow, I'm about to turn twenty in a couple months."

Aang smiled a little. "Well that's cool. Though it's not much different when you turn twenty." He laughed a little. "Actually, it's not different at all, now that I think about it. You're just another year older."

"Yeah I guess so," Katara laughed as well before she gestured for him to continue.

"So like I was saying, I grew up in the agency and just recently was made a full spy," he told her proudly, thinking of his ceremony. "I like music, hanging out with my friends, and I like to practice my bending in my spare time."

Katara smiled as she looked at him. "Which is your favorite element to bend?" she asked curiously.

"I have to admit, probably because I'm from the wind agency it's air," he admitted. "But water is a close second. The two are pretty alike if you think about it."

Katara thought about it and smiled as she realized he was right. "Yeah, you're right. They _are_ a lot alike." She scooted closer to him, making him nervous at her proximity. "Kind of like we are."

Aang laughed nervously, not knowing what to do. He didn't mind having her near him, but he had never felt like this about a girl before, and he wasn't sure what to do about it. "W-what do you mean?" he stuttered, making her smile as she got even closer to him.

"Well…" she started with her hot breath on his face as she drew closer and closer, making him hold his breath as her face neared his. "I also like music, hanging out with my friends, and practicing my bending in my spare time. And I agree, water and air are _very_ alike," she whispered in his ear, sending shivers down his spine as he fell completely under her control and had no problem with it. Not wasting another moment, Katara pulled him into another kiss, and this time he didn't fight it. He allowed his feelings to take the reins and just enjoyed the sweet taste of her lips as they kissed and put the reason away for a while. He would need it for another time, but now was not that time. After a few minutes, the need for air became to great and they reluctantly pulled apart. "Do you feel better about it now?" she asked curiously.

He nodded with a breathless laugh. "Yeah, I do now that I at least know something about you." Katara smiled and kissed him again before a thought came to mind. "So… if we're going to do this… _how_ are we going to do this?"

She gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, how are we going to do _this_," he gestured to the two of them. "My team thinks I'm still out to hunt you. How are we going to do this with them thinking that I still want to kill you?"

Katara was silent for a moment, deep in thought before she shrugged. "I guess we'll have to figure out a way for us all to get together and learn to trust each other. But how would we do that?" Thunder crackled above them as they looked up, seeing the sky darken as heavy torrents of rain threatened to come down. "Oh no, there's about to be another bad storm."

Aang nodded as he thought about it when an idea came to mind. "Wait, I've got an idea." He started whispering into her ear as the thunder rolled loudly.

* * *

An hour later, Aang, Zuko, and Suki came running towards the 'enemy' base. "So what's your plan again?" Zuko asked as they ran, trying not to get too wet from the rain that was now coming down.

"If I keep trying to chase her down, then she'll just keep slipping away," Aang explained as he ran. "If we call a temporary truce to work together to get the real mission done, then I can end her life after the mission is over on the way back."

Suki thought about it and nodded. "Okay, I guess that makes sense. And this way we don't have to worry about attacking each other on the _real_ mission."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Aang lied through his teeth as they continued running. He didn't like lying to his friends, but he saw no other choice now. The only way that he and Katara could be together was if they all learned to trust one another and got both sides of the story. It was the only way they could see it working out to where no one would get hurt, whether physically or emotionally. After a few more minutes of running, they finally reached their destination and waited as Aang walked up to the door and knocked. A few moments later, a fake-angry Katara opened the door and glared at him from around the edge of the door. "Go away, whoever you are! You're not killing me today!"

Aang laughed a little at her idea of acting, but quickly shut himself up when he remembered he had an audience. "Look Miss, I know that we sort of got off on the wrong foot, but…"

"Got off on the wrong foot?" she asked fake-incredulously. "You tried to kill me!"

He sighed and shook his head. "Look, I know and I'm sorry. I was just following orders, but right now my agency has decided that the mission is more important than your death, and it would be better for everyone if we worked together to stop it. Do you think that we could have a truce and work together?"

Katara pretended to think about it for a moment before she let out a long fake sigh. "Fine, come in and we'll talk it out." She opened the door the rest of the way and allowed them inside, secretly kissing Aang's cheek as he was the last one to walk in, making him smile as they made their way to the living room where Toph and Sokka were laying against each other on the couch.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Sokka exclaimed as he stood up and looked around for his sword but remembered that he had left it in his room. "How did you get in here?" he questioned them angrily.

"Relax, Sokka," Katara chided him as she took a seat on another couch. "They're not out to kill me anymore. They just want to talk to see if we can't work out a truce."

Sokka rolled his eyes at his sister. "Yeah… I'm sure that's why they're here." He glared at the new people. "I already fell into one of your traps and am lucky to be alive, not to mention my sister who just barely escaped _your_ attack," he pointed accusingly at Aang who looked down in shame.

Katara rolled her eyes with a sigh. "Sokka, calm down. I understand… he was under orders to kill me. It's my fault anyway. What matters now is that he's _not_ trying to kill me."

"Oh please, this is probably just a trick to get you to let your guard down," Sokka argued as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Katara shook her head at her brother. "Sokka, if they were going to attack me, they would have by now. I'm defenseless and they have all their weapons."

Zuko gave Aang a questioning look, but Aang realized what he was asking and shook his head adamantly, knowing Zuko would do it if he even gave him the slightest nod. "We're not here to do that," Aang assured him as he turned his attention back to them. "We just want to work together to get the real mission done and then go home. Can we work together, please?"

"I'm okay with it," Katara spoke back up. "The more we work together, the sooner the mission gets done. It makes more sense to work together anyway." She turned to Toph. "What do you think, Toph?"

Toph shrugged as she continued to lay back against the couch where Sokka had left her. "Sure, why not?" She got up and walked over to Zuko and jabbed a finger in his gut. "But don't you get any funny ideas, or I'll kick your ass."

Zuko laughed a little and guided her finger to Aang's gut. "You're poking the wrong guy," he explained when she 'looked' at him in confusion.

"Oh," she blushed a little before she remembered herself. "I mean, yeah." She poked Aang's gut again. "Don't get any funny ideas."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Aang assured her as Suki and Zuko slightly smirked at each other, not enough for anyone to notice.

Katara looked back to Sokka. "So… what do you think, Sokka?"

"You already know what I think," Sokka grumbled as his arms remained crossed over his chest. "I don't trust them."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Relax, Sokka. It's not like we can't defend ourselves. If something bad does happen, then we'll kick them out."

"Or kill them," Toph suggested, making Suki and Zuko a little nervous at Toph's suggestion.

"We're not going to do anything," Aang assured them with his hands in the air to stop everybody. "We just want to work together to get this mission done. Can we all agree to just try to work together and get this done so the world doesn't end?" he asked them all. They all nodded in response. "Okay then. We're at an official truce. Thank you for hearing us out, and we should probably be getting back to our base now. We'll contact you in the morning."

As Katara had hoped, the storm had gotten worse to the point to which it wasn't safe outside for the three to go as everyone looked out the window to their left. "Um… I don't think it would be a good idea for you guys to go," Katara told them, trying her best to sound nonchalant.

"Wait a minute," Sokka objected as he stood up after sitting back down. "This guy," he pointed to Aang, "has orders to kill you and you want them to _stay_ here?" he asked incredulously.

Katara rolled her eyes at him for what felt like the thousandth time. "He doesn't have those orders anymore, Sokka," she lied. "They're not going to do anything. Besides we're at a truce. It can't be broken unless both sides agree to break it."

Sokka let out a long sigh and rolled his eyes. "Fine, but they're staying down here. They're not taking our rooms," he refused adamantly.

"That's fine," Aang promised as he took off his jacket and laid it down on the floor, making Katara's eyes slowly rake over his muscular frame with a miniature hum of approval that no one else could hear. "I'll sleep on the floor and Suki and Zuko," he gestured to his friends, "can take the couches. We'll all be fine."

"Whatever," Sokka grumbled before he took Toph's hand and walked over to Aang and got in his face. "Don't get any ideas about killing my sister," he threatened menacingly.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Aang promised as Sokka gave him one last glare and made his way upstairs with Toph right behind him. Zuko and Suki looked at each other and shrugged before moving over to the open couch where they laid down and cuddled together. Katara walked into another room and brought them a blanket.

"Sorry," she apologized to Aang as she laid it down on them. "I only have one extra blanket."

Aang yawned a little and shrugged. "It's fine. I'm used to sleeping without a blanket anyway." He laid down and looked over at his friends who were starting to fall asleep. Katara walked quietly over to him and leaned down to whisper in his ear, to which he nodded in response to before she walked upstairs. Waiting until his friends finally fell asleep, he slowly got up and crept his way up to a room with the door still cracked open, marking that it was Katara's. Slowly opening it up, he peeked inside and was relieved to see her waving him in. He walked in and closed the door softly behind him as she walked up and dragged him back to her bed, setting him down on it and laying down next to him.

"Thanks for coming," she smiled as she let out a little yawn. "Are your friends asleep?"

He nodded with a smile in return. "Oh yeah. They're out cold right now. I don't think anything could wake them up right now," he joked, making Katara laugh a little as he listened to her melodic laugh. He loved the sound of her laugh. It made him feel as if he was a kid again as he listened to the music that she called a laugh.

"Well good. We wouldn't want them to know you're here with me, would we?" she asked with a kiss on his lips.

"No, not yet," he agreed as he smiled at her. "But one day I definitely want them to know."

Katara smiled widely. "Really?"

"Yeah," he smiled wider, loving the fact that she was smiling because of him. "Once this has all settled down, I want them to know about you. I want them to know that you're my…" he trailed off with a questioning look. "What are we?"

Katara thought about it for a moment. "Well… People who do what we do call each other boyfriend and girlfriend, so… I guess we're boyfriend and girlfriend?" she responded with a shrug.

He smiled at that. "I like the sound of that," he told her, making her smile back at him. "So you're my…"

"Girlfriend?" she answered for him. He nodded. "Yeah. And you're my…"

"Boyfriend?" he answered for her in turn. She nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I guess I am."

She smiled again and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Well good, because that means I get to do this." Without another word, she pulled him into a kiss which he melted into, feeling more happy than he ever had with her lips on his. After a few moments, they slowly pulled apart and smiled again at each other. "We'll just have to watch out for my brother. I've never had a boyfriend before, so I don't know how he'll react."

Aang laughed a little. "Okay. I don't think it'll be too hard to trick him. No offense, but he doesn't seem all that bright."

"Oh don't worry, you're right," she laughed, making him laugh in return before she gave him one more kiss and snuggled into him. "Goodnight, Aang."

"Goodnight, Katara," he mumbled into her hair as she let out a content sigh and fell asleep, feeling completely safe in his arms as they held each other, neither one thinking of what the next day might bring.


	5. Unexpected Complications Part 1

Chapter 5: Unexpected Complications Part 1

**Hey guys! Sorry I've been taking so long to write this. I've had a bit of writer's block along with not having much free time lately, but I'll try my best to put more effort into it. Also, I should mention that I'm doing something different that I've never done before in this story. I don't want to say anything about it otherwise it might give it away, but you'll see as you read. Anyway, thank you guys for being patient and I hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

Katara slowly awoke as she felt something pressing against her arm. She was tired, however, and decided to ignore it as she laid her head back down on Aang's chest. Another jab at her arm made her groan in annoyance as she sunk further into Aang's embrace, but the poking just continued as she tried to go back to sleep. After finally having enough, she sat up tiredly and looked at the intruder and realized that she had been caught as she looked at Toph. "Toph? What are you doing here?" she asked tiredly, hoping that Toph wouldn't notice Aang on her bed.

Toph snorted with a roll of her eyes. "Oh please, Sugar Queen. The real question is what are you doing in bed with Twinkle Toes over there?" she shot back.

"Twinkle Toes?" Katara asked in confusion, so bewildered at the name that Toph had chosen for him she had forgotten to worry about being caught.

"He's really light on his feet," she explained as she gestured to him. "I could barely read his footsteps on the ground, so I'll call him Twinkle Toes."

Katara let out a long sigh and rolled her eyes. "Okay, what do I have to do to keep you quiet about this?" she asked, a little scared at what Toph would demand.

Toph smiled sheepishly. "Well… Sokka already knows." Katara's eyes widened in shock. "Before you go all 'What?! How does he know?!'" she mimicked in her voice, she walked out of the room and brought along her boyfriend who she had promptly knocked out.

"What did you do to him?" Katara asked curiously as she noticed her brother breathing softly. A loud snore came from him before he resumed his regular breathing.

"I just hit him on his head with my fist," she shrugged. Katara looked at her in confusion. "I'm an Earthbender, Sugar Queen. I'm a strong girl," she explained with another shrug.

Katara laughed a little despite the situation. She never imagined Sokka would get a girlfriend who was stronger than him. Then again, she supposed _everyone_ was stronger than him. "Wow, that's impressive," she admitted before she remembered that her brother would likely flip out. "What are we going to do?" she whispered, not wanting to wake either of the guys up. "Once Sokka wakes back up, he's going to freak out."

"Well, for starters I'll make sure that he can't talk," she told her as she took some Earth from her pocket and made it into a muzzle which she promptly put on Sokka's mouth, making Katara laugh a little as he continued snoozing. "And then when he wakes up, he'll have to hear you out before we'll allow him to talk, I guess," she shrugged.

Katara took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay… I guess that's all we can do."

"So," Toph started with a smirk. "You get lucky last night?" Katara glared at her, but it fell upon blind eyes. _Literally_, Katara thought with a little laugh before she resumed her glare.

"No. Nothing happened last night," Katara assured her as she looked over to Aang with a smile. "He just came up and talked for a little bit before we fell asleep."

Toph smirked and rolled her eyes. "And would you mind telling me how this happened in the first place? No wonder you seemed so eager to let them stay here. You wanted your boyfriend to stay the night," she teased with a smirk.

Katara rolled her eyes. "Look, it's a long story. Let's just say that… we talked it out and decided that we have feelings for each other," she whispered, still trying her best not to wake anyone else up.

"You don't have to _decide_ anything, Sugar Queen," Toph snorted as she pointed down at her feet. "I can feel your heartbeat through the floor. It's pretty much off the charts whenever he's around."

Katara smiled sheepishly and looked over to Aang with a blush. "Yeah, I guess so. Wait. You knew that I liked him and you didn't say anything about it?" she asked in bewilderment.

Toph snorted with nod. "Yeah. I'm not a snitch. Besides, I didn't know that you guys were doing anything about it. I figured you two just would end up sneaking looks at each other and accidentally flirt with each other and stuff like that."

"Yeah, that's probably how it _would have _gone if we hadn't talked about it," Katara laughed a little as she looked back over to her boyfriend. "It's not like we meant for it to happen, but… we're together now, and Sokka's just going to have to deal with it."

"Whatever you say Sugar Queen," Toph simply shrugged with a yawn before she felt her boyfriend start to wake. "Though you _might_ want to make your explanation good, because he's waking up right now."

Katara felt a wave of fear roll off her, but she pushed it down and started waking up her boyfriend. "Aang," she whispered into his ear. "Aang, wake up."

Aang let out a long yawn, making her smile at how cute he was as he sat up and looked around. "Hey," he greeted her with a tired smile. Looking past Katara, he saw Toph there and his eyes widened. "Does she…" he whispered.

"Yeah, unfortunately," Katara whispered back before she pulled him over to the edge of the bed and took his hand in hers. "My brother found out too."

His eyes widened in complete surprise with a noticeable amount of fear. "What?! How did _he _find out?" Katara looked to Toph who shrugged.

"For some reason," Toph started. "He was awake and decided to come talk to you, but then he walked in and found you snuggled up against Twinkle Toes there. If I hadn't knocked him out, he probably would have passed out," she half-joked.

"Yeah," Katara agreed with a sigh. "Probably." She shook her head and got back to business as she turned to Aang. "He's apparently going to wake up any second, so we're just going to have to tell him."

Aang assessed the situation and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess we'll have to." He laughed a little as he remembered something. "I guess he's smarter than I thought."

Katara shook her head. "Nope, you're still right. He just happened to walk in at the wrong time. That doesn't make him smart," she assured him, making laugh again with a kiss on her cheek, making her smile before she turned back to her brother who was finally awakening. They all waited there in silence, wondering what exactly he would do, or _try _to do since he was gagged and being held back by his girlfriend, anyway. As his eyes fluttered open, he looked around until his eyes settled on Aang and Katara's joined hands.

"Mmmphhmm!" he yelled into the muzzle. "Mmmpphhmmmmmmmm!"

Katara rolled her eyes at her brother. "Sokka, calm down. Just let me explain, okay?"

"Mmmpphmmm!" he tried to speak angrily, but could not the muzzle on his face. Realizing that, he let out a frustrated sigh and didn't speak.

"Thank you," Katara laughed a little before she became serious again. "So, where to start…"

"How about when you and Twinkle Toes started doing it?" Toph joked, making Sokka's eyes widen angrily as he glared at Aang who gulped nervously.

Katara glared at Toph before she looked back to her brother. "Sokka, nothing happened," she assured him. "He just came up here last night and we talked for a little bit and fell asleep. Nothing happened," she repeated herself to make sure he knew.

His eyes didn't lessen in anger for a few moments, but he took a deep breath and slowly nodded, indicating that he believed her. "Good. Now, I should probably explain what happened, but you have to promise that once I'm done explaining that you won't freak out, okay?"

Sokka didn't look like he was going to agree. "Okay?" she asked more forcefully. He let out a long sigh and nodded reluctantly. "Okay. Well…" she looked over to Aang with a smile. "It started when I went out on my walk last night. He found me and we decided we needed to talk After getting to know each other a little more, I guess we decided to be together," she finished with a shrug.

Sokka tried speaking, but his muzzle was still on. Katara sighed a little. "I'll miss not having to hear my brother talk," she joked to Aang, making him laugh before she returned her attention to Toph. "Go ahead."

Toph nodded and took his muzzle off, finally allowing him to speak. He was silent for a few moments, deciding on what to say. After a few more moments, he finally decided to speak. "Are you crazy?" he whispered angrily. "You're going to date the guy who has orders to _kill _you? What are you thinking, Katara?"

"Sokka, relax," Katara sighed with a roll of her eyes. "He's not going to kill me. Right, Aang?" she asked as she turned to him.

"Of course not," he laughed a little and kissed her cheek, making her smile as she leaned against him with his arms wrapped around her.

"See?" she gave Sokka a smug look. "We really like each other. He's not going to do anything."

Sokka rolled his eyes. "He could be lying, Katara! What if he's doing all this just to get you to let your guard down so he can complete his mission?"

Katara was about to snap back at her brother, but she realized that he may be right. What if that was what Aang was trying to do? But that wouldn't make sense, because he could have ended her in the jungle. She looked over to Toph. "You can tell when people are lying, right?"

Toph nodded with a snort. "You bet, Sugar Queen. I'm a human lie detector."

She looked back over to Aang with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, but if it makes Sokka feel better, then would you mind if you said that you like me and don't want to kill me? Someone here," she looked over to Sokka and tried to hide her doubt, "doesn't believe me."

"Of course not," Aang smiled warmly at her, making her smile back before he looked over to Toph. "I really like Katara. She's the most kind, beautiful, and amazing girl I've ever met. I don't want to kill her. I never really wanted to in the first place, anyway. I was just doing what I was told."

Toph read his heartbeat and nodded. "Yeah, he's telling the truth," earning Aang a kiss on the cheek from Katara since he was being truthful about what he thought of her. Though she didn't want to admit it, Katara had truly been worried for a second. Even if it wouldn't have made logical sense, there was always that doubt in her mind that made her question if something was true or not. It had been mostly a thorn in her side, but every once in a while it proved to help.

"See?" she repeated smugly with a smirk at her brother. "Aang doesn't want to hurt me, so do you think you can not be angry if we let you go?"

Sokka was silent for a few moments, making Katara annoyed that he couldn't do this simple thing for her before he let out a sigh of defeat. "Fine," he grumbled. "Just let me go. I swear I won't get angry." Katara smiled and nodded to Toph who nodded and let the Earth restraining him go, making him sigh in relief as he felt the circulation restart in his body. "You couldn't think of a better way to restrain me?" he complained as he felt his sleepy limbs start waking up.

Toph snorted and punched him in the arm. "Sorry Snoozles, I was kind of pressed for time."

Katara laughed a little and smiled as Aang kissed her head, feeling completely at ease in his arms. Sokka glared over in Aang's direction, making the Peacekeeper gulp a little and wait to see what he would do. He slowly rose to his feet and walked over to stand in front of the couple, Katara glaring at him and Aang looking like he might pass out. Without another word, Sokka leaned over and looked Aang dead in the eyes.

"Now," he began with the protective fire in his eyes. "I know I can't do anything to get my sister to not date, but I can still warn you. If you hurt my sister, I will maim you and feed you to my pet wolf. Got it?" he poked Aang in the chest menacingly.

Aang had never nodded so quickly before in his life.

"Good," Sokka smirked, feeling satisfied at his reaction before he started walking out of the room. "I'll be watching you two," he called over his shoulder before he was finally out the door.

Katara rolled her eyes at her brother. Even as an adult, he still couldn't just let her live her life without having to threaten her boyfriend. She smiled as she thought about it. _I have a boyfriend,_ she thought happily. Although she hadn't really thought about it before, she had always had a kind of loneliness that she had dismissed as missing her mother. But now her loneliness had lessened, and she realized that it was the void of romantic love in her life that had been causing her to feel that way. Though she knew that she would be perfectly fine on her own, she enjoyed the fact that she had someone. "Sorry about that," she apologized as she looked up to him. "He's always been protective over me."

"It's alright," Aang assured here with a smile. "I understand. If _I_ had a sister as beautiful as you, I would probably be protective over her too." Katara blushed and smiled up at him before leaning up to capture his lips, reveling in the sweetness of them as Toph coughed into her fist, making them split apart with heavy blushes as they were reminded of the blind Earthbender.

"Well now that you guys are done making kissy faces," she taunted with a smirk. "I'm assuming that you don't want your friends to know about this?" she asked Aang. He nodded, then remembered that she wouldn't be able to see it.

"Yeah, if you wouldn't mind," he spoke to her softly, hoping his friends hadn't woken up yet. "I plan on telling them eventually, but now's not the time."

Toph snorted a little and shrugged. "Okay, whatever you say Twinkle Toes," she replied with a laugh and promptly walked out the door, leaving Aang with a confused look.

"Twinkle Toes?" he asked in utter bewilderment.

Katara laughed a little and nodded. "Yeah, she said she's going to call you that because you're so light on your feet," she explained with a grin.

Still looking confused, Aang nodded slowly and thought about it. "Okay… I guess she can call me that. Does she come up with nicknames for everyone?" he wondered.

"I'm not sure about _everyone_," Katara said thoughtfully. "But she has for you, me, and my brother, so I can only assume she does it for all her friends."

"I guess so," he smiled before he kissed her again. Letting out a long sigh, he got up from her bed, making her pout as she missed being in his arms. "As much as I don't want to, I should get back downstairs so my friends don't get suspicious."

Katara nodded sadly. "Yeah… I guess you should." She stood up and kissed him again, not wanting to let him go without getting another taste. After a few moments, they slowly pulled apart and smiled at each other. "So when can we do this again?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Well… if we're not out on a mission tonight, then I can sneak up here," he offered.

"Great," she smiled and kissed him again. "I'm looking forward to it." He smiled in return and they kissed one last time, not wanting to let the other go, but Aang knew he had to back before his friends woke up. Finally making himself pull away, he smiled at her as she smiled back.

"Bye," he said with a goofy smile on his face, making her heart flutter like a bird.

"Bye," she smiled happily back before he finally was out of the room. She flopped onto her back and stretched across her bed, completely unable to hide the huge smile on her face. Even if they had only been dating for not even a full day, she was so happy whenever she was with him. Something about him just made her feel… _alive_. Something that made her happier than she had ever been. Almost like she… No. She couldn't possibly love him yet, could she? Not only had they just met, they had only started dating the night before. There was absolutely no way she loved him already. Right?

Shaking these thoughts from her mind, she decided to get some more sleep, knowing they had a long day ahead of them.

* * *

Aang crept his way down the stairs and was relieved to see Suki and Zuko still asleep together, making him laugh as Suki was completely sprawled over Zuko. It amazed him how all it took sometimes was the right encouragement and a couple could become real. Grinning at his friends, he laid back down on the ground and pretended to be asleep. It proved to be a wise decision too, as his friends woke shortly after.

Suki sat up with a long yawn before she looked over to her boyfriend and then to her friend. Deciding they had all slept long enough, she got up and nudged Zuko, making him groan until he finally woke up. Satisfied with her work thus far, she turned to Aang who was still pretending to be asleep. Smirking a little, she crouched down and looked over to make sure that Zuko wasn't looking and kissed Aang's cheek, making him inwardly roll his eyes before she started poking him in his gut. Letting her do it a few more times, he finally decided to 'wake up'.

"What?" he asked with a fake yawn as he sat up and stretched, doing his best to pretend like he had just woken up. Fortunately for him, one of the many things that his agency had taught him since he was young was to give a believe performance, and this was certainly no exception.

"Come on. You need to wake up," Suki whispered to him. "We need to figure out what the plan for today is." He nodded slowly and rubbed his eyes, making her satisfied before she returned her attention to her boyfriend who was once again sleeping. Rolling her eyes, she once again nudged him until he was awake.

"Huh?" Zuko murmured tiredly as he sat up and stretched, making Suki smile a little at her boyfriend. The word was still sort of foreign to her, as she had never had one before, but she was happy with him. They had always been good friends, so it wasn't too surprising to her that she was dating him. "What's up, Suki?"

She smiled and kissed his cheek. "Come on, Zuko. We need to get ready for the day. There's a lot we need to work out before we go out and do some recon." His tired eyes glanced at her and then Aang before he nodded slowly, though not without letting out another yawn.

"Okay, if you say so," he agreed while getting up and stretching, his hair a complete mess from the static being against the couch had given him. Suki laughed a little and smoothed it over, making him smile at her as they stared into each others' eyes.

Aang laughed a little at his friends and put his jacket on. "Come on, let's go see if they're awake yet," he gestured for them to follow as he led the way upstairs where Katara, Sokka, and Toph were all talking. Katara was the first one to notice them and smiled at him to which he smiled back before she noticed his friends behind him, quickly resuming her fake indifference. "Hey guys," he waved to them as they reached the top of the stairs.

Katara smiled again against her better judgement but quickly shut it down, letting out a secret sigh of relief as his friends didn't seem to notice. "Hey," she nodded to him. "Should we take this downstairs?"

"Sure," he nodded back to her as they turned around and went downstairs and sat down at the table in the center of the building. Despite the building being made for a few people, there were conveniently enough chairs for everyone to sit in as Aang sat next to Katara, who sat next to Suki who surprisingly sat next to Sokka with Toph and Zuko to his right. Aang wondered Suki had chosen not to sit next to her boyfriend, but Zuko didn't seem offended by it and shrugged it off.

"So," he started as he folded his hands and looked to his right at Katara who had to hold herself back from kissing him from how cute he looked. "Now that we're going to be working together, we should plan out our first steps. Any suggestions?"

Suki decided to speak up. "We should do some recon. That way we know what we're dealing with and can figure out how to get in there."

Aang didn't look like he was very happy about Suki interrupting Katara, but Katara gave him a quick reassuring smile, so he eased back into his normal demeanor. "Yeah, she's right," Katara agreed as she looked at Suki and then back to Aang. "We should split up and look around the perimeter to see if we can't find a hole in their defenses."

"Or an area where we can create one," Sokka put in, making Suki look at him with a smile.

"Hey that's what I told Aang last night," she laughed a little as he laughed in return before they both remembered themselves and looked back to their leaders. The other four gave them all questioning looks, but eventually let it drop as they got back to the topic at hand.

"Anyway," Katara continued with a weird look at her brother who simply shrugged in response. "We should split up into teams to cover more ground. And this way we can learn to trust each other more."

Zuko childishly raised his hand, making Aang chuckle. "Yes, Zuko?" he asked with a grin.

He smiled sheepishly and put it down. "No offense to you guys or anything, but why do we need to trust you? After this mission is over, we'll probably end up going back to being enemies," he pointed out, clearly still having no clue about Aang and Katara, much to their relief.

"We don't know that for sure," Aang argued with a look over to Katara who looked a little worried. "Maybe by the time the mission is over, maybe my agency and her agency can be friends again. Until then, though, we have to at least act like we're not enemies. It's the only way this is going to get done."

"Okay," Zuko shrugged before he relaxed again.

Aang laughed a little and returned his attention to Katara. "So, what did you have in mind for splitting up on teams?"

Suki gave him a weird look. "Isn't it obvious? You, me, and Zuko go on one end while the others go on the other end," she said as if it was obvious.

Letting out a long sigh, he shook his head at her. "No Suki, like I said, we need to build trust in each other. The only way we're going to be able to do that is if we work together." He turned back to Katara with the most serious look he could muster. "What were you thinking?"

She pretended to think about it for a moment, despite already having had the answer for several minutes. "Well… to make sure that we get along and all… we should probably have one person from each group go together."

Everyone else's eyes widened in surprise as Aang nodded in pretend thought. "Okay, that could work," he agreed before he looked back to her. "So who goes with who?" he wondered, hoping she would say what he was hoping for.

"Well... since we're the leaders of our groups, you and I should probably go together to build our trust in each other," she responded as nonchalantly as she could, making Sokka roll his eyes at her idea. "Then to make sure everyone else gets along, I'd say Toph go with… Zuko, right?" she asked, to which Aang nodded. "Okay, then Sokka can go with… Suki?" she asked again to which he nodded to once again.

"Yeah, that could work," he decided before he turned back to the group. "Do you guys think you could do that?"

They were all silent for a few moments, somewhat hesitant to spend time with these strangers, but they knew there was no getting out of it, so they let it go as they nodded in acceptance. "Great," Aang smiled and looked back to Katara. "Looks like we've got a plan. How about Sokka and Suki take the East side of the Fortress, Zuko and Toph on the West side and We'll check the back?" he questioned her fake-seriously.

She saw right through his fake seriousness and nodded with equally fake seriousness. "Yeah, that sounds like a plan." She looked at the time and saw that it was already approaching noon. "Okay you guys, go get your gear and head out to your assigned location. We'll all get in contact once we've reached our spots."

"We're going to be a little longer," Aang broke in with an apologetic smile to Katara. "I need to grab something from our base, so we'll be running a little late."

"Okay," Sokka shrugged, shooting him a secret warning glare when he was sure no one else would be able to notice. Aang could practically read his face. He might as well have been holding up a sign that read, _Don't get any funny ideas with my sister._ Aang just gave him a nod, afraid anything else would betray the fear that was coursing through his veins. Satisfied with the evident fear on his face, Sokka and Suki along with Zuko and Toph started making their way out of the base, much to Aang's relief. Once he was sure they were gone, he looked over to Katara with a smile. "Well, if nothing else at least they'll hopefully learn to trust one another."

She smiled right back at him as she walked up and took his hand in hers. "I'm sure they will. Sokka and Toph might be a little headstrong, but they're easy to get along with… for the most part." Aang laughed, making her laugh as they enjoyed each others' presence.

"I guess so," Aang finished laughing and grinned. "How about we go to my base and then we'll go see if we can't find a way inside?"

"Sounds good to me," she smiled again and allowed him to lead the way out the door. As they walked, she couldn't help but be reminded about what had been on her mind earlier. She knew she liked Aang… _a lot_, if she was being honest with herself. But there was no way she could _love_ him… right? Granted, she had heard about stories where two people fell in love at the first sight of each other, but surely that was just for stories, not the real world. Though no matter how much she tried to push it down, she couldn't help but wonder if she really did love him. She had never been in love before. Hell, she had never even _liked_ a boy before, so she had no point of reference to go on. _No. Now's not the time for this,_ she chided herself in her mind. _First get this mission done, and then you can worry about whether you love him or not_.

"Katara?"

She snapped out of her thoughts and looked over to see him with a concerned face, touching her heart at how much he obviously cared for her already. "Yeah, Aang?"

"I tried talking to you, but you didn't seem to hear me," he told her as concern only grew on his handsome features. "Are you okay?" he asked cautiously.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she gave him a reassuring smile. "Sorry, I was just thinking a little bit."

"What were you thinking about?" he asked curiously as they continued walking, pausing when they heard a strange noise behind them, but resumed walking once they were sure that nothing was there.

She laughed nervously and looked down at her feet. "Um… nothing?" she asked more than answered. He didn't believe her for a second. "Nothing important," she amended. "It's just something silly. I promise."

He still looked concerned and a little suspicious, but he simply shrugged and smiled at her. "Okay, if you say so. If you ever want to talk, I'll always be here for you. I've been told that I'm a good listener, so if you ever have anything you want to get off your chest, just let me know."

Katara smiled back and kissed his cheek. "Thanks, Aang. That means a lot to me. Not even my own brother would be willing to do that for me."

"Hey, it's no problem," he replied with a grin, making her heart flutter as she stared into his eyes. "That's what I'm here for." They both smiled at each other and were so lost in each others' eyes, Aang did not notice the fallen branch in his path, not-so-coincidentally causing him to fall on his face.

A laugh escaped her lips as she quickly covered her mouth, trying her best not to laugh at her boyfriend. "Sorry," she apologized with a sheepish smile. "But you should've seen the look on your face when you tripped."

He fake gasped and put a hand over his heart, overly exaggerating being offended. "How dare you? I'm sure that I looked brave as I fell," he said in a clearly-joking tone.

She giggled a little and offered her hand. "Come on, how about I help you up Mr. Brave?" He reached out to grab her hand, but not without an evil plan forming in his mind. Katara noticed the evil smirk that found its way onto his face. "What are you thinking?" she asked suspiciously. His smirk remained in place as he finally took hold of her hand, but instead of pulling himself up as she expected him to, he pulled her down with him, eliciting a shriek as she landed on his chest. "Hey!" she complained with a playful slap on his shoulder. "That's not funny!"

"Yes it is," he smirked.

"No!"

"No!" he said while inching his face closer to hers, making her will to fight crumble as he grew closer and closer.

"Yes!" she replied distractedly, making him grin in triumph as his lips were centimeters from hers.

"What's wrong Katara?" he asked as his hot breath was on her face, sending shivers down her spine as she found herself completely captivated by him. "Cat got your tongue?"

She would have responded, but she found that she couldn't. The only thing on her mind right now was that his lips were so close, if she could just lean in the rest of the way… Deciding to do just that, she attempted to close the gap between them, but Aang had other ideas. Without another word, he started tickling her stomach, making her shriek with laughter as he flipped them over and tickled her mercilessly, making her laughter ring throughout the jungle as his attack continued.

"Aang!" she begged through her tears. "Please! Stop!" More fits of giggles prevented her from continuing her pleading, especially with the need for air becoming more and more desperate. Seeing this, Aang finally relented and stopped tickling her, allowing her to take a deep breath and for her head to regain its bearings. Once she was finally back to normal, she playfully glared at him. "I'm going to get you back for that," she warned him.

He simply smirked in reply. "Oh yeah? How do you plan on doing that?" She smirked as well and flipped them over, not wasting a second and started tickling him. His laughs made her smile. He had one of the most beautiful laughs she had ever heard. So full of joy and mirth, as if nothing could ever make that laugh go away. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" he spoke through his laughter, doing his best not to let the tears flow. "Will you please stop?"

"Why should I?" she asked with a smirk. "You didn't stop when I asked you to. What's stopping me from doing this for as long as I want?" She gave him a challenging look, knowing that he was completely at her mercy. She didn't, however, notice that Aang had another plan in mind.

Without another word, Aang reached up and started kissing her neck, making her gasp and then moan as he kissed his way down to her collar bone where he started nibbling, making her moan loudly as he worked on her. Once he was satisfied that she was completely under his control, he flipped them over and leaned his face centimeters from her lips, making her amazed at how badly she wanted to taste his lips. "What was that?" he asked fake-curiously, a proud grin on his face as Katara finally realized what had happened.

"Hey!" Katara complained, though not as much as she wanted to due to the fact that he was still so close, making her unable to think clearly. His scent, an odd mix of air and pinewood, flooded her system and made her lose herself as she struggled to regain herself. There was nothing she could do, however, as she found that no matter how much her brain resisted, every other part of her wouldn't let up. "You… you can't just…" she finished weakly, staring into his eyes.

"How about we call a truce?" he offered, not wanting to 'fight' with her anymore. The part of her that was a fighter didn't want to give up so easily without making him pay a little more, but the part of her that was completely entranced by him won out as she nodded in agreement. "Good. Because I'd much rather be doing this," he told her with a smile before he leaned down and captured her lips, making her head swim as she kissed him back roughly, not being able to get enough of the feeling he gave her. After a few moments, they reluctantly pulled apart and smiled at each other. "See? Isn't that better than tickle fights?"

She smiled again and kissed him. "Yeah, it is… but I'm still going to get you back for that, just so you know," she warned him.

He just laughed and kissed her again, making her sink back into that amazing feeling he gave her before he pulled away, making her want to reach back up and bring his lips to hers once again. "Whatever you want, Katara. Whatever you want." She smiled again and allowed him to pull her up before they continued walking towards his base. After a few more minutes of walking, they finally arrived as Aang opened the door and gestured for her to come in with him. She nodded and followed him in as two robotic animals came running up to him, tackling to the ground as they nuzzled him affectionately.

"Hey guys," he laughed as Appa started licking him, making Aang surprised at how real his tongue felt. Fortunately for him, though, it didn't leave any slobber like a real dog would. "Sorry we kind of left you guys here. You guys want some food?"

Appa barked and wagged his tail while Momo simply chriped. He smiled and walked over to the kitchen and opened the cabinet, pulling out some oil that he had found and refilled each of them. Satisfied with his work, he put the oil away as Appa and Momo finally noticed Katara. Appa growled, making Katara nervous before Aang came back and pet Appa until he calmed down.

"Appa, relax," he ordered while stroking his head. "She's a friend, not an enemy." Appa continued to growl as Aang remembered that Katara was officially marked as the enemy of the Winds. "Appa, activate protocol 35." Appa did as he was told and a panel came out of his side. After a few moments of uploading some info into his system, Aang closed the panel and allowed the info to go through Appa's matrix. Once it was finally completed, Appa stopped growling and walked up to nuzzle against Katara.

"This is my dog Appa," Aang gestured to the dog with a smile. "And this," he pointed to the Hawk who was staring at Katara with emotionless eyes, "is Momo."

Katara smiled and pet them both. "Hi Appa and Momo. I"m Katara." Appa barked and tackled her, licking her roughly as she laughed, making Aang smile at his girlfriend and his dog.

"Looks like he likes you," he laughed a little before he remembered what they had to do. "Come on guys, let's go!"

Katara looked over at him in confusion. "We're going now?"

"Yeah," he nodded with an equally confused look on his face. "Why?"

She blushed a little and looked away, making him smile at how cute she was. "Well… I thought we were coming her first to have some… _alone_ time together."

He blushed a little and smiled at her. "I think we got that alone time on the ground earlier, don't you think?"

"I guess so," she laughed before she nodded. "Okay, let's go then." She attempted to start walking out the door, but before she could get the chance, he pushed her up against the wall and kissed her roughly, making her moan against his lips as she kissed him back, loving the sweet taste of his lips. After a few moments, they reluctantly pulled apart and smiled. "What was that for?" she asked breathlessly.

"Well, you wanted some alone time, right?" he shrugged. She simply nodded. "Well, here's a little more alone time," he grinned.

She laughed a little and looked at the animals behind them. "I would hardly call this alone time, but I'll take what I can get." He laughed and kissed her again, making her sigh in contentment as her arms wrapped around his neck with his around her waist. After a couple minutes of kissing, Appa barked, snapping them back to reality as they pulled apart.

"We should probably get going," he told her breathlessly, not wanting to, but knowing that there was work to be done.

She let out a long, disappointed sigh and nodded slowly in agreement. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Come on. Let's get out of here." He took her hand with a smile and led the way as they walked out of the base and made their way to their spot. "I wonder how everyone else is doing?" she wondered.

"I have no clue," Aang laughed, making her laugh as well as they walked, not knowing that something they would never have expected was happening as they spoke.


	6. Unexpected Complications Part 2

Chapter 6: Unexpected Complications Part 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

"How long is this going to take?" Toph complained as she leaned up against a tree and blew some hair out of her eyes. "We've been here forever."

Zuko rolled his eyes and continued looking through his binoculars. "We've been here for a few hours, Toph. It takes longer than that to find a good place to sneak in."

Toph rolled her eyes in return and stomped her foot against the ground, hoping she could find some kind of hole in their defenses, but found nothing when an idea came to mind. "Why don't we just tunnel underneath their defenses? They probably wouldn't be expecting us to do that."

He shook his head and tried to offer her some schematics of the place, but then remembered that she was blind, something she had made sure to tell him over the little time he had spent with her thus far. "That's where you're wrong," he finally said to her as he looked over the schematics. "According to this, there's plenty of weapons and soldiers at the ready for anyone who might try to get in that way, not to mention landmines along the front of the perimeter. If we tried to go underground, we would just blow ourselves up."

"Fine," she huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "So…" she started awkwardly. "Wanna tell me anything about yourself?"

He looked at her with a raised brow. "What do you mean?"

She simply shrugged in response as she sighed in boredom. "I don't know… we apparently have to get along, so we might as well at least _pretend _to be friends. Tell me about the man behind the gloomy sound in his voice."

"I wouldn't be so gloomy if I was with my girlfriend," he rolled his eyes at her before looking through the binoculars again, watching a few guards carrying a crate towards the center of the base. Raising a brow, he shook his head before he continued, "Well… I guess I can tell you some basic stuff about me."

"Feel free to, oh wise one," Toph grumbled and slumped against the tree.

Zuko was silent for a few moments, wondering what exactly he should say. Sure, he wasn't one to talk about the things he was feeling, but Toph didn't seem like she would judge him too much. In fact, it didn't seem like she cared at all. If nothing else, this could work well for getting some stuff off his chest. "I was born and raised in the Fire Agency," he started, choosing his words carefully as he went along.

"Oh really?" Toph asked sarcastically as she dug around in her ear with her pinky finger. "Wow, I hadn't guessed that. I never would have guessed that in a million years," she laughed, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Rolling his eyes with a sigh, he decided to play nice and continue. "Wow, me neither," he responded just as sarcastically, making Toph unwillingly crack a smile. He noticed this and smiled a little to himself before he became serious again. "Anyway, I was raised from birth to be an agent. My father runs the agency. Has since his father died. Back when…" he trailed off sadly.

"When what?" Toph asked not unkindly, sensing deep pain in his voice. A pain that she recognized well.

He shook his head and looked down at his feet. "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not talk about it. It's a long story…" He took her silence as agreement before he continued on. "Anyway, so my father has been running it for a while, which pretty much put a lot of pressure on me to be the best in the agency." He paused as his tone became bitter. "That was until my sister started making herself known."

Toph's brow raised as she 'looked' at him with a confused expression. "What do you mean? Did she beat you in the 'Who can be gloomier contest'?" she teased.

Zuko actually laughed a little, making Toph's heart flutter a bit, but she shut it down and waited for him to continue.

"No, that's not it," he assured her as he looked back at the fortress. "Before she was born, my father seemed so proud of me. Like everything I did made him the proudest father in the world," he sighed wistfully. "But then my sister was born, and from then on, something just changed. Father started paying more attention to her. I don't know what I did, but Azula was clearly his favorite. Now he barely even talks to me." He laughed a little bitterly and looked down at the fire insignia on his jacket, the one symbolizing his full status as an agent. "And if that wasn't bad enough, Azula proved to be a better agent than me. Not just in firebending, but… _everything_ really. He was so proud of her, he had her perform for our Grandfather even though the oldest is traditionally the one who does it." He looked down at his feet sadly. "Ever since then, he only talks to me if he needs something. I just don't know what I did for him to just ignore me." _And why mother had to leave me too…_ he thought sadly.

Toph was silent for a few moments, not entirely sure what to say. She definitely wasn't the kind of person you would go to for a pick me up. Hell, she was more likely to punch you in the shoulder and tell you to man up, but she understood Zuko's pain, but just in a different way.

"I think I know what you mean," she admitted, taking him by surprise as he looked at her in bewilderment.

"What do you mean?" he questioned.

She just shrugged and started playing with her fingers a little, feeling unusually nervous. Although she was confident and tough most of the time, when it came to talking about this… it wasn't her favorite topic to talk about. But she could tell he needed someone to talk to, and she realized it might be a good idea to talk it out for her sake too.

"My parents," she started awkwardly. "They… They treat me like I'm helpless just cause I'm blind. They don't think that I can handle myself, but I can," she said a little angrily before she calmed herself down with a deep breath. "Do you know how long it took for me to start training to be an agent?"

Zuko shook his head, then realized that she couldn't see it. "No."

She leaned back against the tree and let out a long sigh. "It took me until I was thirteen." She laughed a little incredulously with a roll of her eyes. "Thirteen. I had to wait until I hit my period before I could talk them into letting me be an Agent." She let out a sigh and 'looked' down at her feet. "All because I was blind."

"Well at least you got attention from your parents," Zuko argued as he looked down at his hands. "My father barely even speaks to me anymore."

"Too much attention is basically no attention at all."

"How so?" Zuko questioned with a bewildered look at her.

Toph didn't respond for a moment, wondering how to put this in the best words possible. "Because… They weren't paying attention to the real me. They treated me like I was some fragile porcelain doll that could break at any moment. They never got to know the real me." She laughed bitterly. "They still don't know the real me. They think I'm just this helpless girl who stumbles her way into each mission and just barely comes out of it alive, but it's not like that. I'm the best agent in my agency, and they think that I'm some helpless girl." She huffed and crossed her arms angrily. "Trust me, they might as well be ignoring me. They're not paying attention to the real me, they're giving their attention to the daughter they think I am. My father still objects to me going out on missions, even though I'm an adult now."

Her words broke through Zuko's core, seeing her now as more of a kindred spirit rather than some random agent that happened to be on the same mission as him. She too had parenting issues, just as he did, just in a slightly different way. And she was right. If his father gave him lots of attention, but if it wasn't to who he really was, he wouldn't be satisfied with it either.

"Yeah… I guess you're right," he sighed and decided to sit next to her against the tree. The silence between them was a bit awkward, but not so much anymore. Knowing about their shared family problems seemed to have made the awkwardness between them lessen. He unconsciously looked over at her. "Wow, you're really pretty," he thought aloud, making them both blush and glance away from each other.

"Um… Thanks…" Toph smiled a little with her blush intact.

"No problem," he responded awkwardly as he looked away, but then looked back at her. He knew he shouldn't, but it felt like something was pulling him to her. Before he even knew what was going on, he started leaning into her, with her leaning in as well. They were inches away from each other. He could almost taste her lips…

"Zuko? Come in, Zuko."

Stopping themselves, they quickly pulled away and Zuko somewhat disappointedly pressed his earpiece. "Yeah, Aang?"

"Just wanted to let you know that me and Katara are in position," he explained. "It took us a little longer because Appa and Momo kept running off when they detected an animal. Have you found anything yet?"

"No, not yet," he admitted as he glanced over at Toph who was fiddling with her fingers. "I'll let you know if we find anything."

"Roger that. Call in if you find anything."

Zuko nodded, temporarily forgetting that they were talking on an earpiece. "Will do. Talk to you later, Aang." He pressed the button and let out a shaky breath. The silence was thick between them as both wondered what to say. It was pretty obvious they had almost kissed, but they each had a partner that they were currently with. He had loved Suki for a long time, but Toph… he seemed to have gotten some feelings for her, too. "So… about what just happened…"

"Never happened."

He looked up at her in surprise. "What?"

"Never happened," she repeated herself as she shifted a little nervously. "We were just caught up in the moment. Nothing happened, and nothing will happen. We don't have feelings for each other, and that's how it's going to stay."

"Right," he agreed reluctantly, feeling a familiar feeling in his gut: disappointment. He shook his head at himself. "Right. It was nothing. How about we go back to trying to find a weak point?"

She snorted and flipped over on her side with her face on her hands, doing her best not to show the confusion etched across her face. "Go ahead, Hothead. I'm going to take a nap."

Zuko wasn't sure about that, but he knew he needed some quiet time to sort through his thoughts anyway, so he agreed. "Okay. Sleep well, then." Toph was silent as he looked at the fortress again through his binoculars, wondering why he felt somewhat torn as he searched for something that would get this stupid mission over with.

* * *

Sokka crunched on a bag of chips he had kept in his pocket. The blazing sun was shining down on them, as they had no good shelter to cover themselves with. A bead of sweat made it down his face as he groaned, feeling more and more annoyed with his sister by the minute. Maybe if she hadn't insisted on them going to this spot, maybe they would be in a more shady place…

"Sokka?"

He snapped out of his thoughts and looked up to see Suki looking at him with an annoyed expression. "Yeah, Suki?"

"I was just talking to you about possible entrances," she explained with a roll of her eyes. "Were you even listening?"

"Sorry," he apologized with a sheepish smile. "I was thinking about how hot it is."

She still looked a little annoyed, but she sighed and nodded in understanding. "Yeah, it really is hot outside."

"Can't we just take our jackets off? It feels like we're in a sauna," he complained.

Suki laughed a little and shook her head. "You know we can't. If someone saw us, our identities could be exposed. Not to mention that our agencies would kill us for doing something so stupid."

He gave her the best pleading eyes he could muster. "Please? Just for a little bit? We're far enough away that no one can see us, and I don't know how much longer I can take this stupid heat," he nearly begged.

After a few moments of consideration, she let out a long sigh and nodded. "Okay… but only for a little bit. If anybody catches us-"

"Yeah, yeah, the Agency will kill us," he interrupted her when a question popped in his mind. "Wait a minute, didn't you leave your agency?"

Her eyebrows raised in surprise. "How did you know that?"

He shrugged and leaned back against a tree after taking off his jacket, making Suki's eyes slowly rake over his muscular body before her attention went back to his face. "I overheard you talking to your boyfriend last night." She gave him a confused look. "You sleep-talked to each other," he explained.

"Really?" she asked in surprise.

"Yep," he laughed a little, his eyes widening as she took off her jacket, revealing her beautifully defined curves, making his jaw drop a little before he looked back up to her face, only to have it drop again as he realized how beautiful she was. "Uh… Yeah," he squeaked, making her laugh.

"Well that's good to know that I sleep talk," she said with a smile before she looked back at the fortress. They sat there in silence for a few moments before Suki suddenly looked back at him. "Am I the only one who's nervous about this mission?"

Sokka raised a brow at her. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged and looked down at her feet as she leaned back against a tree and let out a long sigh. "I don't know… It's just… This mission is more serious than the other ones I've been on before. If we don't do this right, well… It could _literally_ be the end of the world."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Sokka admitted as he thought about it. "Well, as much as I want to say that I'm not scared at all, I would be lying if I said I wasn't. This is a big deal, and honestly, I'm kind of scared of messing it up."

"Me too," Suki agreed with a sigh before she looked over to him. "But we can do this… right?"

He gave her a reassuring smile. "Of course we can. We're the best agents in all the four Agencies. We know what we're doing, and if we all work together, then we'll get this done and go home in no time." He chuckled a little. "Besides, you seem like a girl no one should mess with, so I'm not too worried if you're helping us."

She smiled back at him. "Thanks. I think I actually needed to hear that."

"No problem," he grinned and looked into her eyes as she looked into his. Snapping out of it, Suki grabbed her binoculars again and looked through them, hoping to cover the blush that had found its way onto her cheeks. _What is going on with me?_

"Any luck?" Sokka asked as he moved next to her.

Laughing a little nervously, she shook her head until she saw something that caught her eye. One of the soldiers guarding one of the sections looked around and bent a part of the fence down while stepping over it and putting it back into place. "That's it!" Suki exclaimed excitedly.

"What's it?" Sokka asked in confusion as he took out his own and attempted to see what she had seen.

"There's an open part of the wires that we can get into!" she told him with a wide smile.

"Really?" She nodded. "Great! Then we can go in and get the information!"

She tackled him in a hug, both smiling as they enjoyed each other's embrace before they realized what was happening. Laughing nervously, they pulled away and looked anywhere else but at each other.

"Um… so…" Sokka began, unsure about what to say. They were saved from an awkward conversation as Suki's earpiece started buzzing.

"Hello?"

"Hey Aang," Suki sighed in obvious relief, grateful to have a distraction as she walked a little bit away. "What's up?"

"Just checking on how you guys are doing. Any luck so far?"

Suki nodded, but then remembered they were talking on the earpiece. "Yeah, actually. We found a small part in the wires that we can sneak into."

"Great!" Aang exclaimed excitedly. She heard something that sounded like a whisper and a small chuckle before he continued, "Well, if we have a way in, we should head back to their safehouse and figure out the plan. Sound good?"

"Sounds good," she agreed. "See you back at the safehouse." The line went dead and she looked over to Sokka who was staring awkwardly at his feet. Clearing her throat, she grabbed her jacket and put it back on. "So, you ready to go?"

"Yeah," he agreed quickly and put his back on. "Let's get out of here." She simply nodded and led the way when she was so distracted by her thoughts, she tripped on a tree branch and landed with her back to the ground. Sokka, however, had been tripped as well and ended up on top of her, their faces inches apart.

"Um… hi?" he laughed nervously.

"Uh…. hi," she laughed nervously back, unconsciously staring into each other's eyes before they remembered themselves again.

Sokka hastily got up and offered a hand. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

"Yeah, let's," she agreed and took it as he pulled her up and brought them once again face to face, making them both a little nervous before they walked quickly to the safehouse, hoping to get these conflicting thoughts out of their minds.

* * *

Aang smiled at Katara as they laid back against a tree. This day turned out to be getting better by the moment as he held her in his arms. First he got to spend some alone time with her, then he introduced her to his 'pets', and now Suki had found a way into the fortress. Everything was looking up for him, and he just hoped that it would stay that way. Though he had to admit, something didn't feel quite right… Almost like… something had happened. He didn't know what, but he supposed he would just have to wait and see.

Katara let out a content sigh as she leaned up to kiss his cheek. "I wish we could stay out here for a while. It would be nice to just have some time together without having to hide from your friends."

He smiled and squeezed her tighter. "Yeah, I wish we could too. But if we did, my friends would get suspicious. And honestly… I don't know how they would react to finding out about us…"

"What do you mean?" Katara asked with a confused look on her face.

"Well, for one thing they think that I'm pretending to be your ally to kill you," he explained as she raised an eyebrow at him. "I had to do it to make them think that I was still on with the mission. If they saw that I didn't want to kill you anymore, they would know that something was up," he explained.

She thought about it for a moment and nodded in thought. "Okay, that makes sense." Looking up at him, she asked a little cautiously, "When _are_ we going to tell them about us?"

He thought about it for a moment. "I don't really know," he admitted, thinking it over. "As much as I would love for them to know, I'm not sure how they'll react. I'm supposed to kill you after all." He looked down into her eyes. "No way that's going to happen though."

"Really?" she asked with a wide smile.

Laughing a little, he kissed her head and rested his head on hers. "Kat, I don't think you understand. Back out there in the jungle… when we fought and I was about to kill you… when I saw you, there was just no way I could. Killing you would've killed me, too," he admitted, making her smile even wider. Unable to hold herself back, she turned around in his arms and kissed him passionately, making him smile against her lips as he kissed her back. Katara just sunk into the bliss he gave her, unable to think with how good she felt with his lips on hers. She was reminded of her previous train of thought. Did she love him? Considering how happy she felt whenever he was around, it sure felt like it, but she had no point of reference to go off of. She knew she liked him a lot, but… did she really _love_ him? Her mother had told her some clues to know if she was in love. What were they?

_Flashback_

"Mommy!" a young Katara said excitedly as her mother walked into her room. "Come check this out!" She put on a bracelet that turned into a dart shooter.

Kya's eyes widened and walked quickly over to her. "Where did you get that, Katara?"

Katara looked confused while looking at the object in question. "Sokka gave it to me. He took it from the gadgets in the lost and found." She blushed when she realized she had given herself and her brother away. "Oops."

Amusement danced in Kya's eyes before she held out her hand. "I'll take that, please," she requested politely. Katara let out a little sigh and reluctantly handed it over. "Thank you. Now, why don't we get you to bed?" Katara smiled as Kya picked her up and brought her over to her bed.

"Mommy?" Katara asked a little shyly.

Kya smiled warmly at her daughter. "Yes, my little Water bender?"

"Well…" she started nervously, a little hesitant to ask this question.

"What is it sweetheart? Is everything alright?" Kya asked in concern as she felt her motherly instincts start to kick in.

Katara nodded quickly, not wanting to worry her. "Yeah, it's just… How do you know when you're in love?"

Kya was more than a little surprised by this question, but she shook her head and decided to answer with a question of her own. "Why? Have you fallen in love?" she teased gently.

"No," Katara shook her head quickly. "It's just that… I've been reading these fairy tale stories and the two people in them fall in love when they first see each other."

Kya motioned for her to continue.

"I guess what I'm asking is… can that actually happen?" she questioned curiously.

Taking a moment on how to word this as carefully as possible, Kya finally responded, "It _can _be possible, but it's very rare. Some people _think _that it's love at first sight, when really it's just what we call an infatuation."

"What's an infa, infat…"

"Infatuation?" Kya asked to which Katara nodded. "Well, do you know what a crush is?"

Katara nodded quickly. "Yeah! A crush is when you like someone, but it's not as strong as love."

Kya smiled, her daughter was very smart at such a young age. "That's right. And the difference between infatuation and a crush is that it's very short. But love, love lasts for a long time. And when you find the right love, it will last forever."

"Okay… but what does that have to do with if it actually happens or not?" Katara wondered.

Kya smiled a little and sat down on the bed. "Because it's important to understand the difference between infatuation and love, dear. Infatuation fades quickly, but love lasts. Always remember that, okay?"

"Yes mommy," Katara smiled before another question popped into her head. "How can you tell that you're in love, though?"

"Well…" Kya started as she laid down next to Katara and gathered her in her arms. "When you're in love, you'll be willing to do anything for them. Their pain is your pain, and their happiness is your happiness."

Katara looked confused as she snuggled into her mother. "_Anything_?"

"Anything," Kya agreed with a smile. "Just like I would do anything for your father."

"Oogies," Sokka shuddered as he appeared at Katara's door, making her glare at him. "Go away, Sokka!"

He crossed his arms and shook his head. "This is my room, too! You can't make me go away!"

Kya laughed a little and took him into her other side as he came up to her. "It's alright, Katara. I want him to know this, too." Katara still didn't look happy about it, but she gave up with a sigh. "Now, even though I know you guys are a long way from it, one day you two will fall in love with someone out there, and I want you to know that no matter what, remember this: When you love someone, if you are willing to do anything for them, anything to make them happy, that is how you know you love them. Okay?" They nodded in response. "Good."

Katara let out a long yawn as Kya smiled. "Well, it looks like it's your bedtime." She picked up Sokka and set him in his bed and gave him a kiss before giving Katara one as well. "Goodnight, my little angels."

"Night Mom," Sokka yawned before he turned over in his bed and quickly fell asleep.

Kya smiled and looked to Katara who was starting to fall asleep. "I love you, Mommy," Katara murmured before she fell into a deep sleep. Kya smiled and kissed her head again before letting them get to sleep.

_End of Flashback_

They finally pulled apart as her mother's words came back to her, making her think them over as she stared into his eyes, feeling his smile warm her to her very core. _Would I do anything for him?_ she wondered. She surprised herself as she found that she _would_ do anything for him. Whether it was something as small as kissing him or sacrificing herself to make sure that he lived, she would do _anything _for him. _I love him,_ she thought in amazement.

Aang looked concerned as Katara didn't say anything for several moments. "Kat? Is everything okay?"

Katara snapped out of her thoughts and nodded quickly with a nervous smile. "Y-yeah. I'm fine. Why?" she asked as she tried to avoid his gaze.

Frowning a little, he took her cheek in his hand and forced her to look at him again. "Katara, what's wrong? You know you can tell me anything, right?"

She didn't respond for a few moments, unsure of what to do. Of course she wanted to tell him that she loved him, but what if he didn't feel the same? What if she told him and he freaked out and didn't want to be with her anymore? Even if they had only been dating for not even a full day yet, she couldn't bear the thought of not being with him.

"Katara," Aang whispered gently, breaking her out of her thoughts as she looked at him. "I don't know what's going on, but I can see that you need some alone time, so I'll just start heading back to the base." He set her gently on the ground and started walking away when Katara sprang to her feet and ran over to him.

"Aang, wait!" He stopped moving and waited for her to say what she wanted to say. "Look, I…" She struggled with her words, still scared as to what he would say, but she took a deep breath and decided to just get it out. "Okay… look, this is scary for me to say but… I…" she trailed off nervously with her eyes glued to her feet.

Aang took her reluctance to mean what he feared. "Oh. I get it. You don't like me anymore," he assumed, making her eyes widen in surprise as he refused to look at her. "It's fine. I understand. I'll just leave you alone."

"What? No, Aang!" she tried to stop him, but he had already taken off faster than she could comprehend, making her curse herself for being so stupid. "I need to find him," she muttered to herself before she took off running, worrying that she might lose her love before she even got to tell him how she felt.


	7. A Heist In the Night

Chapter 7: A Heist in the Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

Aang walked into the safehouse with a sad sigh. He supposed he should have seen this coming. After all, why would an amazing girl like Katara ever be interested in him? What did he have to offer? Even if they had only been dating for a day, and though he had no way of knowing for sure, it had felt like… like he loved Katara. Like he would do anything for her to be happy. And if he truly loved her, he would just have to accept that she didn't want to be with him anymore. As long as she was happy, then he would be happy for her, even if he felt lost without her.

"Aang?"

He looked sharply to his right to find Suki looking at him in concern.

"Is everything alright?" she questioned as she saw the despair in his eyes. "You look like you just saw a puppy get kicked."

"I'm fine," he tried to smile but it fell just as quickly, so he decided to walk away quickly. "I'm going to take a nap. We'll plan our next steps in a little bit." Before she could say a word, he made his way back outside and Earth Bent himself a small room that no one but Toph could get into. Suki worried for him, but she had enough on her mind right then as it was, so she decided to shrug it off. Not long after, however, Katara came running up, completely out of breath.

"Katara?" Suki asked in confusion. "Why do you look like you just ran a few miles?" Then a thought came to mind. "Are you being chased?" she asked worriedly.

Katara shook her head quickly. "No, just something happened. I need to talk to Aang. Do you know where he is?"

Suki nodded slowly, clearly confused as to what was going on. "Um… yeah. He said he was going to take a nap and went around the side of the base." Katara nodded her thanks and ran out the door again, making Suki even more confused.

"Aang!" Katara called out to him as she ran to the side of the base and was somewhat relieved to see his small 'room'. She was also nervous, as it meant that she would have to tell him she loved him, but she knew this was the only way she could get him back. Taking a deep breath, she walked up to it and awkwardly knocked. "Um… hello?"

There was no response, making Katara even more worried. What if he wouldn't even talk to her anymore? How would she be able to tell him she loved him if he wouldn't even hear her out? "Aang?" she knocked on it again. After another few moments of silence, a small section slid open with his eyes peeking out.

"Hey Katara," he greeted her fake cheerily, unable to hide the sadness shining in his eyes. "Sorry, I was taking a nap. Did you need something?"

"Um, can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked quietly, feeling eyes on them. "Maybe inside your little house?"

Aang's brows furrowed in confusion, but what did he have to lose? She didn't want to be with him anymore, so there was nothing that could hurt him anymore. He nodded and opened a small doorway for her to get in which she crawled quickly into. Closing it behind her, they awkwardly sat there when Aang realized that he couldn't see her. "Here, let me get some light in here." He took out his blade and transformed it into a sword before activating the glowing feature on it. "So…" he started awkwardly, unsure what to say. "What did you want to talk about?"

Katara looked at him in the soft glow of the light, feeling her fear come back to her. She knew she had to tell him how she felt, so why was she hesitating? Looking into his eyes, she could see the pain that she had caused him and hated herself for it. _That's it. No more hesitating. No more fear. He needs to know how I feel_, she decided before taking a deep breath.

"Look," she began. "I didn't really explain myself very well back there." She laughed a little bitterly. "Actually, I didn't explain myself at all."

"Katara," Aang started sadly, not wanting to hear it again.

She shook her head quickly. "No, Aang. Please, just let me say what I need to say. Please," she almost begged, hoping he could see the sincerity in her eyes. He remained silent for a moment before he reluctantly nodded, ready for the sting of rejection once again. Taking one last deep breath, she looked him in the eyes and spoke the words straight from her heart, throwing all caution to the wind. "Aang, what I was trying to tell you back there… It wasn't that I don't like you anymore."

Aang's eyes widened in disbelief. "What?"

Katara smiled sadly and took his hands in hers. "I still like you, Aang. That's not what I was trying to tell you. I wanted to tell you something else, but… I was scared," she admitted with a sigh.

"What were you scared of?" he asked in confusion when a possibility came to mind. "Were you scared that I would try to kill you?"

Her eyes widened as she shook her head quickly. "No, Aang. That's not what I was scared of, I promise."

Relief flooded over him, but he still didn't understand why she was scared. "Okay… if you weren't scared that I would try to kill you, then what were you afraid of?"

She was silent for a moment before she got angry at herself. Every time she had been hesitant, it had only ended badly for her. No more hesitation. She couldn't allow it anymore. Aang deserved to know the truth. Taking one last deep breath, she looked up into his eyes and said what she should have said back out in the Jungle. "I love you, Aang."

His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at her. "What?"

"I love you, Aang," she whispered lowly as she looked away, fearing his reaction. A warm hand came over her cheek as she found her gaze turned back to him, watching him smile with pure adoration shining in his eyes.

"I love you too, Katara."

Her eyes widened as she stared at him in disbelief. "You… you do?"

"Of course I do," he laughed a little and caressed her cheek, making her lean into his warmth as his fingertips danced across her cheek, sending shivers down her spine as she looked into his eyes. "How could I not? You're the most amazing girl in the world, Katara. I don't see how anyone could _not _be in love with you."

She smiled so widely she thought her face might break. "Really?" He nodded, gasping in surprise when she attacked him with her lips. He smiled into the kiss and kissed her back, tangling his fingers in her hair to bring her closer as Katara kissed him hungrily. She hadn't thought that he would love her back, but she had at least hoped that he wouldn't get scared off. But now she knew that he _did_ love her, and she was very happy to know that. It all seemed a little crazy to her. After all, they hadn't even gone on an official date yet, but she couldn't deny it any longer. She loved him, and he loved her. Sighing contentedly into his mouth, they slowly pulled apart and smiled at each other.

"I love you," they whispered to each other before they kissed again. They became surprised when their little shelter went back down into the ground, leaving them out in the open. Looking around, they were surprised and a little nervous to see Suki and Toph standing there.

Suki tapped her foot on the ground, looking more than a little pissed. "_Really_, Aang? You wouldn't give me a chance, but you're in love with the girl you've been ordered to kill?"

Katara looked at him in confusion and a hint of jealousy in her eyes, but he just smiled apologetically. "Sorry, she used to like me."

"Oh," Katara responded before she remembered that they had been busted and looked to Toph. "Why did you help her?"

Toph shrugged and picked her nose before flicking the booger in a random direction, earning a disgusted look from everyone else.. "Because I thought it would be funny." Katara glared at her, but she just shrugged again. "Would it have made a difference? She heard your conversation without my help. The only thing I helped with was make _this _conversation happen faster," she pointed out.

Katara let out a frustrated sigh and shook her head. "Whatever." She then looked over at Suki who still didn't look very happy. "Look Suki, I-"

"Don't 'Suki' me!" Suki growled with a glare at Katara. "Do you know how long I wanted to date Aang, and all of a sudden you come along and he wants to be with you?"

Aang finally decided to speak up. "Look Suki, I'm sorry, but I just-"

"And you!" Suki cut him off with an accusing finger in his face. "You were lying to us this whole time? We're your friends and you thought you couldn't trust us with this?"

He looked down in shame, feeling remorse for having betrayed his friends' trust. "You're right," he admitted with a sigh. "I'm sorry, Suki. It's not like I wanted to, but I thought that if you guys found out that I was dating the girl I was supposed to kill, that maybe you guys would betray me and tell my agency."

Suki looked at him in disbelief. "Aang, how long have you known us?" She didn't give him the chance to answer. "Years, Aang. We've all been friends for years. I don't care about what your Agency wants." She took a deep breath and sat next to him. "Look, Aang. I get that you were worried, but we would have understood. You can't help who you fall in love with." _Even if I wish you had fallen in love with me_, she thought wistfully.

He looked at her in surprise. "Really?"

"Really," she agreed with a sad smile. "Aang, our friendship comes before any Agency, right?"

"Of course," he responded simply, making her smile a little.

"Well that goes for all three of us," Suki told him honestly. "No matter what, whatever we go through, even if we're fighting with each other, we're never going to turn our backs on each other. Right?"

Aang shook his head. "Never." Suki smiled and pulled him into a half hug before releasing him and standing up.

"If you want to be with her, who are we to stop you? What kind of friends would we be if we couldn't support you in this, even if the girl you're dating is on your agency's Most Wanted list?" she half-joked, making him laugh a little.

"So you're really okay with this?" he questioned warily, still not expecting her to be so accepting of it.

She smiled sadly and nodded. "Of course I am, Aang. And I know Zuko will be too when we tell him. We're your friends, and as long as you don't lie to us about it again, then we'll be happy for you."

Aang smiled and pulled her into a hug which she returned happily before he pulled away. "Thanks, Suki. That means a lot to me."

Suki laughed and stood up, offering him a hand. "Come on. We should get inside and start making a plan to get inside the fortress." He took it and stood up before offering a hand to Katara who took it, holding onto it tightly for reassurance that he wouldn't leave her for Suki. He noticed this and kissed her cheek, making her smile happily as they made their way back inside to find Sokka and Zuko talking.

"What are you two talking about?" Suki asked curiously as she saw them deep in conversation.

Sokka laughed nervously and didn't say anything for a moment. "Nothing." Suki didn't look like she believed him. "Nothing important," he amended.

She looked at him for a few more moments and shrugged. "Okay…" She turned to her boyfriend. "Hey Zuko, there's something that Aang here needs to tell you."

Zuko rolled his eyes and took a sip of his water bottle. "What, that he's dating the girl he's supposed to kill?" he muttered sarcastically, taking everyone by surprise.

"How did you know that, Hothead?" Toph questioned.

Zuko blushed as he remembered their moment earlier and shook his head. "Well, if not because they're holding hands right now," he started, making both Aang and Katara blush as they realized they were. "Then because I heard you guys on the earpiece."

Aang's eyes widened in surprise. "You did?" Zuko nodded. "What did you hear?"

"I heard your confessions of love, and let me tell you, it was gross," he grimaced, making everyone else laugh. His grimace fell as he gave Aang a soft smile as he walked up to him and leaned into his ear. "And good job by the way. She's gorgeous."

Aang smiled proudly and nodded. "Thanks." Zuko moved back to take his seat and they all stood there in an awkward silence. So much had happened over the course of a day, no one really knew where to start, so Aang decided he would be the one to kick things off.

"So," he began as he made his way to the table with everyone taking a seat at it. "Now that all our personal issues are resolved, we should focus on the mission again." Zuko and Sokka glanced at each other nervously before returning their attention to their leaders. "Suki said she found a weak point in their defenses. What exactly was it?" he asked as he looked at her.

"Well, there was a soldier who decided to go back inside, so he pulled down a part of the fence and put it back up as he stepped over it," she explained with a shrug.

Aang nodded as he thought about it. "Okay, so if we can take care of the guard and make sure no one else sees us going in, then we should be able to slip in unnoticed." Pulling out some schematics of the place, he placed it on the table as everyone crowded over it. "We're going to want to get to the building in the center here," he pointed to the biggest building in the fortress. "That's their command central and it's where they're probably keeping the plans for whatever it is they're planning."

Katara nodded slowly in thought. "Yeah, that's right. So how are we going to get in there? From what I've seen, most of the soldiers are surrounding it." Surprisingly, Sokka raised his hand. "Yeah, Sokka?"

"Well, when we were looking for an opening, I saw an air vent in the center of the building," he explained. "If we can get up there, then we can sneak in and find out what's going on."

Thinking about it for a moment, Katara and Aang nodded to each other before looking back at Sokka. "Okay, that could work," Katara agreed. "But we still need to figure out how we can get to the air vent without being detected by anything."

"Oh that part will be easy," Aang laughed a little as he pulled out something from his pocket. "It's a little something I whipped up from when I saw how your base was hidden." Everything looked closely at it and noticed that it was a box.

"Um, not to be rude or anything, but how is a box going to help us?" Sokka questioned.

Aang laughed sheepishly and rubbed his neck. "Right, sorry. I forgot to press the button." Taking the box and setting it on the ground, he pressed a button on it and watched as it transformed into a miniature closet as everyone else gasped in amazement. Sorting through it, he looked until he found what he was looking for. A pure black outfit, but something seemed off about it… Almost as if it was humming with power.

"What's that?" Suki asked curiously as she tried to get a closer look at it.

"It's a camouflage suit," he explained with a smile, proud of his work. "It'll help us get in without anybody seeing us."

Sokka looked at it pessimistically. "Um, we have camouflage suits at the Agency, but they can be scanned if using the right equipment. What's different about this?"

Aang took it off the rack of the closet and handed it to him, making him gasp as he barely felt it. "This stuff is so light, any scanner that tries to recognize it won't be able to," he explained. "There's only a certain amount that a scanner can register, and this is too thin for it to be able to tell between skin and clothing. Since it won't be able to tell, it won't be able to recognize that there's anything there at all."

Sokka thought about it for a moment and nodded. "Okay, that makes sense," he finally agreed. "But you've only got one. There's six of us."

Zuko snapped his fingers and dug around in his pocket, producing what appeared to be a small pistol from his pocket. "This should help."

"What is it?" Toph asked as she tried to feel it through her Earthbending, but found that she couldn't.

"How is a gun going to help us?" Suki wondered as she looked at it.

Zuko laughed a little and picked it up before hitting a button on the side. "Duplicator activated," a robotic voice came from the gun.

"_That's_ how," he told them before he aimed it at the clothing that was still in Sokka's hand, making Sokka yelp as he shot it. The clothing duplicated with every shot until there were six separate outfits on the ground. Everyone picked one up and hung onto it.

"Great," Aang said as he looked at all of them. "Now we have a plan and we know what to do. Get all of your gear and meet me at the front door in an hour. We'll go out at night to make sure that it's harder to detect us."

"Aye Aye, Captain!" Toph sarcastically saluted, making everyone laugh. Toph started walking upstairs and accidentally bumped into Zuko, making them both blush before Zuko walked away. Sokka and Suki gave each other a weird look but then blushed as well before going away quickly.

Katara looked at Aang with bewilderment etched on her face. "What was that about? They looked like something happened."

"I don't know," Aang replied bemusedly as he tried to figure it out himself, but found that he couldn't. Shaking his head, he looked back to her with a smile. "We'll worry about that later. Let's go get ready." He offered a hand to her. "Shall we?"

She smiled in return and took it happily. "We shall," she agreed as they walked upstairs and got ready, wondering just what the night had in store for them.

* * *

An hour later, as requested, everyone showed up in their camouflage, ready for what lay ahead. Though they were nervous, they were also excited. This was their first real mission, one that could affect the fate of the world if they weren't careful, but they were up to the challenge and confident that they could do it. There was still an uneasy feeling between the four as they waited for their leaders to finish with their pep talk, but they knew that at least for now it had to be put off. There were more important things to worry about at the moment.

"So," Aang's voice snapped Zuko out of his thoughts as he resumed listening to him. "Although I know this is a little scary, I know we can do this if we work together, okay?"

"Okay," everyone murmured in agreement.

"Good," Katara smiled as she looked at her friends. "Now let's go do this!" she cheered, making them all cheer in response before they started moving out the door. They walked and made their way to the base, but as they went, they couldn't help but think about all that had happened in the past couple days. None of them had imagined this would have happened, but it had happened all the same. Aang and Katara were happy with how everything had turned out so far, but everyone else was conflicted. Zuko for instance. He knew he still loved Suki, but he knew he felt something for Toph too…

After talking to Sokka, nothing had really been worked out. There had only been more questions. Normally Zuko would have been jealous that Sokka liked Suki too, but he couldn't be angry at him when he liked Toph as well. It was rather annoying, as he wasn't one to think too much into his emotions, but this was proving to be the rare exception as he found that he couldn't think about anything else. As they walked, he unconsciously took Suki's hand in his, both of them feeling the tingles it sent up their arms, but being unsure about what to do with it. Something had changed, they both knew it, but they knew that now wasn't the right time to talk about it. It would just have to wait until later. After a few more minutes of walking, they finally reached the spot that Suki and Sokka had been at and stopped as Aang and Katara turned to them.

"Okay," Aang started as he looked them all in the eyes. "You know the plan. We go in, get the information and get out." He looked over and noticed two guards standing by the section they needed to go through. "But how are we going to get them out of the way?" he wondered aloud.

"Can't we just kill them?" Sokka asked. "That would be easier than trying to sneak past them."

Katara shook her head. "No, Sokka. We can't kill them. Or at least not right there," she amended as she followed Aang's gaze. "We don't need any other guards getting suspicious, so we need to get them away from their position."

Aang nodded in agreement. "She's right. If they see two guards randomly die, they'll know something's wrong. We need to get them away from there." He looked back to them. "Any ideas?"

They all thought about it before Suki thought of something. "Appa and Momo! They could distract them, right?"

Aang smiled as he realized she was right. "Oh yeah, how did I not think of that?" Taking a deep breath, he brought his fingers to his mouth and let out a loud whistle, making everyone else cover their ears until it was over.

"What was that for?" Zuko asked grumpily as he took his hands off his ears. Aang didn't respond as Appa and Momo came out of nowhere and went to their master.

"Hey guys!" Aang greeted them cheerfully as Appa licked him and Momo nuzzled his head. "Want to help us out?" Appa barked and wagged his tail while Momo chirped in agreement. "Great, so here's the plan…

One soldier stood in front of the gate with a tired look on his face. "This job is so boring. Why don't we get to do anything exciting?" he asked with a yawn.

The other soldier rolled his eyes. "Would you rather be on clean up duty for the boss?" He shook his head quickly with a look of disgust. "Yeah, that's what I thought." A loud whimper could be heard from inside the Jungle. "Is that one of our dogs?" he asked his comrade.

"It sounds like it." Another whimper came from the area. "Let's go check it out." The other soldier shrugged and followed him as he led the way and found a wounded dog laying down near a tree. "Well, it's not one of ours." He walked up to it and checked the wound. The fear in the dog's eyes was obvious, so he tried to soothe it as it started whimpering. "Hey, it's okay. We're going to get you patched up." What he didn't know was that his comrade had been killed and moved away. The sound of wind flaps came from behind him. "What the-" He was cut off as Momo tore his throat out with his talons, making him fall to the ground dead. Everyone stepped out of some bushes as Appa 'healed' himself and went over to Aang who pet him on the head.

"Good job guys!" Aang smiled at them before turning back to the group. "Okay, so now we can get inside. Everyone knows what to do?" They all nodded. "Great. To make sure that we're not making too much noise, we'll split up again. Zuko and Suki, Toph and Sokka, and me and Katara."

He was surprised to see that not everyone seemed happy about it. Actually, the only one who seemed to be more than okay with it was Katara. _What happened_? He wondered. Shaking his head, he continued.

"Okay, well you guys know what to do. Be careful and don't get caught. We'll rendezvous at the building and figure out the next step." They all nodded and split up in their separate directions while Aang looked at Katara. "Did you notice something… different about them?"

She thought about it for a moment and nodded slowly. "Kind of, yeah. They didn't seem all that eager to go with their partners, even though it's their boyfriend/girlfriend. Almost like something happened…" she trailed off thoughtfully.

Aang sighed a little. This wasn't really what the team needed right now, but he supposed it would have to wait until the mission was over. "Yeah, we'll have to see what's going on later. Right now we've got more important things to worry about." He offered his hand to her. "Shall we?" She smiled and took his hand with a kiss on the cheek before they activated their camouflage and made their way inside the gate. Once inside, they looked around and crept their way through, occasionally letting a guard go by just to be on the safe side. _They better be careful…_ he thought worriedly as they made their way towards the center.

* * *

Zuko and Suki crept together in an awkward silence. It was obvious to both of them that there was something wrong, but they knew that now wasn't really the time.

"Halt!"

They froze in place and expected the worst, but the guard behind them walked forward as a vehicle came in through the main entrance. "State your business," he told the driver.

"I'm bringing in goods for the boss," the driver told him as he lit a cigarette and took a puff. "You know, the stuff he requested for his little project."

The guard chuckled a little and shook his head. "I wouldn't call it 'little'. After all, when his project's completed, he'll have the power to rule the world," making Zuko and Suki gasp a little. They tried listening in, but the conversation had turned to other things, and they knew they couldn't move yet. Their outlines would be seen in the headlights of the vehicle, so they would just have to wait until the driver was gone.

"So," Zuko whispered awkwardly. "How've you been?"

Suki gave him a look which he couldn't see under his mask, but he knew what it was all the same. "Zuko, why are we acting weird?" she questioned him.

He let out a long sigh and shrugged. "I don't know." He was hesitant, now certainly wasn't the right time, but they could be waiting for a while. If nothing else, maybe they could talk this out and figure out what to do. "Look, I… When I had to hang out with Toph, we sort of got to know each other and…"

Suki raised a brow that he couldn't see. "And what?"

Another moment of silence passed between them before he continued. "And we almost kissed," he admitted, making her somewhat relieved and a little jealous.

Zuko was surprised however when she grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "It's okay, Zuko. When Sokka and I were looking around, I think I got some feelings for him too," she admitted quietly. They were both silent for a moment, letting that information register in their minds.

"So what do we do about it?" he thought aloud quietly as he looked at her. "I know I still love you, but…" He sighed again. "I don't know."

Suki thought about it for a moment and shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted before the vehicle finally moved away. "But we'll worry about that later. We've got a mission to do."

"Right. Let's get this over with," he grumbled and got up while offering a hand to her. She took it and they continued to make their way to the rendezvous point.

* * *

Sokka was a little grumpy. Not because he was hungry, because he wasn't. Not because he hadn't gotten enough sleep, because he had. Sighing a little, he shook his head. If it hadn't been for his stupid sister asking him to go with Suki, maybe they wouldn't be in this position. Maybe if he had gone with Zuko, maybe this never would have happened. Then maybe he wouldn't feel so awkward around his girlfriend.

"Sokka?"

Sokka's attention snapped to his girlfriend. "Yeah?" he asked as his whole attention was on her.

She took a deep breath, making Sokka confused. It was almost like she was… nervous. He hadn't known her for very long, but he knew her enough to know that she didn't get nervous. Or at least she didn't until now, anyway. "Look," she started awkwardly. "I know now isn't the best time, but-" she was cut off as Sokka saw a Guard coming around the corner and dragged her into a tent with him, waiting until the Guard was gone before he looked back at her.

"Sorry. There was a guard there," he apologized sheepishly. She just rolled her eyes a little and continued.

"Okay… While you were with Suki, me and Zuko got to talking and we almost… kissed," she admitted quietly, taking him by surprise, but in an odd mix of relief and jealousy. Though he knew he couldn't say anything, as he was basically in the same boat.

"Well… I've got a bit of a confession to make to," he told her quietly, making her 'look' at him in surprise with a raised brow.

"What do you mean?"

He looked down at his feet and shrugged. "Well, while we were out there talking, I kind of got some feelings for her," he admitted, making Toph sigh a little.

"What do we do, Meathead?" she asked tiredly.

"I don't know," he admitted before looking up to see their destination not far away. "But we'll worry about that later. Let's just get this over with."

Toph was silent for a moment, but then nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It'll have to wait," she agreed before punching him in the shoulder. "If you ever tell anyone I was soft for a minute, I'll punch you ten times harder," she warned him.

He rubbed the offended shoulder grumpily. "Fine. I won't," he promised. "Now let's finish this." She nodded in agreement and they continued moving, wondering just how everything would turn out.

* * *

They all finally met up at the spot they had agreed upon and crowded together. "Good job, guys," Aang congratulated them. "But now's the hard part." Everyone quietly groaned a little, but he just shrugged it off as he handed them each a pair of gloves. "These gloves are magnetized and will help us go up the wall to the vent."

"But what if we fall?" Sokka questioned worriedly.

"You'll just have to be extra careful," Aang replied simply, unsure of what else he could say. "These are top of the line, so it should be fine. Just make sure you have a good grip on the wall, okay?"

Sokka reluctantly nodded in agreement before Aang gestured for them all to follow. Creeping over to the wall, he activated his gloves and effortlessly started climbing it, making Katara smile. She had the coolest boyfriend ever. Everyone else had more of a struggle with it, but they too got it down and followed him as he led the way up to the vent. As he reached it, he saw that it was bolted down. There was no way he could rip it off. _How am I going to get past this thing?_ He wondered before an idea came to mind. Taking one of his hands off the wall, he dug around in his pants pocket and pulled out his pen. Turning it on, he cut through the vent grate and put it inside the vent as they crawled in. Fortunately for him, he had prepared for this and had memorized the schematics of the place. He knew every corner of the building, and he knew just where he needed to go. After a few minutes of everyone crawling through the cramped space, Aang found what he was looking for and looked down, surprised to see no guards there. Shrugging, he kicked the vent open and set it on the other end before jumping down.

"Come on guys," he whispered. Katara jumped down and landed in his arms as he caught her with a smile before he put her down and moved out of the way for everyone else to come down. Once everyone was out, he then turned to the main controls of the building and looked around until he found what he was looking for: The Fortress' database. He nodded to Zuko who nodded back and walked over with a USB in hand. Plugging it in, he watched as Aang started sifting through the information until he found what he wanted. "Operation: World Storm?" he whispered to himself in confusion. Clicking on it, he opened it to see a video from underground. A large room housed a machine that Aang couldn't quite describe, but as he watched a man press a button, it made a noise that he recognized well. One that he had spent years as a kid perfecting. The sound of making a thunderstorm.

"What is that?" Sokka gasped as he watched from Aang's right shoulder. Aang didn't respond, afraid of what he was seeing, but decided to keep that to himself. The video shifted to an aerial view of the island as the thunderstorm grew and grew until it was the size of the island itself. The winds picked up, lightning shot in multiple places, a torrent of rain poured down on the island.

"It's a Storm Maker," Aang murmured, making everyone look at him.

"What's a Storm Maker?" Suki asked curiously.

"It's a device that can create storms from a rainstorm to a category five hurricane," he responded seriously, taking everyone by surprise. They had never heard him be so serious before. "Only a Peacekeeper is supposed to have that kind of power, but if they managed to do that…" He shook his head quickly. "We need to focus." Once the video had ended, it showed a synopsis of their plan. Reading through it, his eyes widened in disbelief. "They're going to end the world."

Katara looked at him in utter surprise. "What?"

He looked at her. "They're going to end the world. If they use this machine, they can make enough hurricanes, tempests, thunderstorms… whatever they need to obliterate the world. Then they can start all over and rule the world."

Everyone was silent as they tried to register that. "Wow," Katara breathed. "That's..."

"Evil," Aang agreed before he downloaded the file onto the USB. "Once this thing is downloaded, we need to get out of here. If we're going to stop them, we need to come up with a plan. Fast." They all anxiously waited for the file to download before it finally completed. Grabbing the USB, Zuko put it in his pocket and nodded to Aang.

"Come on. We need to-" he was cut off as alarms started blaring and the room turned red, making them all worry as a voice came over the speakers in the room.

"Intruder detected," a robotic female voice rang over the speakers. "All units converge on the command tower."

Everyone looked at each other nervously. "Uh oh…"


	8. Back on Track

Chapter 8: Back On Track

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

Sirens blared as the group of friends all looked at each other, wondering what they should do. It was pretty obvious that they needed to get out of there, but it would take too long for them all to get back up into the vent before they were caught. Aang looked around quickly, searching for anything that could get them out of there without having to fight, but there was nothing short of jumping out of the building. He could survive such a fall, but his friends wouldn't be able to, and there wasn't enough time to carry them all out of there one at a time.

"Looks like we're going to have to fight," he told them as he pulled out his dagger and turned it into a sword. They all nodded, not very happy with the situation they found themselves in, but they also know that they didn't have any other choice at this point.

Walking over to the door, he motioned for them to follow him as he opened it and started running down the hallway. Just as he suspected, a group of nearby soldiers had come running from their station, ready to apprehend the intruders with any force necessary.

"There!" one soldier shouted. "Those are the intruders! Don't let them leave here alive!" The soldiers grunted in agreement and ran even faster towards the group, ready for a fight. What they hadn't been ready for was a group full of Master spies, ones who had spent their whole lives training to fight. Especially Aang, who came from the deadliest agency in the world. Within a minute, the group had made short work of them as they ran, knowing that if they stopped running, they would likely be cut down.

"Come on guys!" Aang called over his shoulder as he took a right down a long hallway. "We're getting out of here!"

Sokka panted as he ran, not having had to run so much in a while. "Can we slow down for a second? I'm feeling a little woozy."

Toph punched him hard in the shoulder, making him yelp. "We don't have time to slow down, Snoozles! We need to get out of here!" Sokka didn't complain again.

Taking a sharp left, Aang led the way and was relieved to see what appeared to be the lobby of the building. "We're almost out of here, guys!" he told them before running as fast as he could. They were almost there. If they could just make it out the door…

Just as everyone entered the lobby, all the doors closed around them, making everyone surprised as they realized there was no other way out. The robotic female voice came over the speakers again. "Building on lockdown. No one may leave until the threat has been neutralized."

Sokka gulped as he looked at his friends. "That means us, doesn't it?"

Katara would have rolled her eyes at her brother's stupidity if a large group of guards hadn't come from the door opposite to them, wielding everything from pistols to electric batons. "Well, well, what do we have here?" the leader of the group taunted them. "If it isn't the intruders. Looks like we're going to have some fun tonight, aren't we boys?" The soldiers cheered behind him as he grinned and looked back to the group. "Now why would you people be breaking into our humble tower? We're not doing anything wrong." Sarcasm dripped from his voice.

"Not doing anything wrong, huh? You call trying to obliterate the world so you can start all over 'not doing anything wrong'?" Katara asked incredulously.

He just shrugged, clearly not caring about what she was accusing him of. "_We're_ not doing that, our boss is. We get paid to protect this place and keep people like you out of it. And that's exactly what we're going to do." He turned and looked back at his soldiers. "Have at 'em, boys!" The soldiers cheered and rushed forward, ready for a slaughter.

What they hadn't expected was that they would be the slaughter.

Aang didn't hesitate and ran straight into the small army of soldiers, cutting them down so quickly that they couldn't see him. After his friends snapped out of their shock at how quickly he jumped into the fight, they joined him and fought with everything they had, knowing that if they didn't make it out of this, there would be no one to save the world in time.

Sokka pulled out his sword and fought two soldiers who attempted to stab him, deflecting their blows before he kicked one in the shin and hit the other hard on the head with the pommel of his sword and quickly taking their lives with a quick slice of his blade. Even though his fear was at an all time high, he had never felt so alive as he was right now. All of his other agency missions had never been quite like this. He wasn't sadistic, but he was sort of enjoying this. The adrenaline rush he got from fighting was making him feel invincible as he fought.

It proved to be a hindrance, however, as his confidence made him forget to check his back. Fortunately for him, Toph could sense the soldier trying to get him from behind and sent some Earth at him in the shape of a dagger, lodging it in his heart as he was sent back into a wall.

"Watch your back, Snoozles!" she yelled over the noise as she resumed fighting. "I'm not always going to be able to save your ass, so you gotta be able to save your own ass!"

Sokka smiled sheepishly when he realized his guard had gone partially down and made a mental note to watch his back as he was told. The fight was going well for them. Suki and Zuko were working together, Suki with her newly acquired fan pummeling soldiers to a crisp while Zuko would burn them to a crisp.

Katara and Aang stood back to back, taking turns killing the soldiers who were dumb enough to dare coming up to them. Aang with a swing of his sword and some bending while Katara would slice at them with the sword of ice she had made. After a little while of fighting, Aang could see that the group was growing rapidly tired, and knew he had to do something to end this fight quickly.

Taking a deep breath, he took his blade and concentrated some electricity into it before stabbing it into the ground, sending an electric shockwave that fried most of the enemies that were left. By the time the dust had settled, there was only one soldier left. The one Aang knew they would need to get out of there and had chosen to spare him for the time being: The malicious leader.

He just stood there in shock, staring disbelievingly at the scattered ashes that had once been his comrades. Never once in his life did he think that he would come across such a powerful group, but as they walked up to him, he knew that he had been wrong to think that he would survive.

Aang grabbed him by the collar and brought him over to the control panel, making sure to hold his sword against his neck. "Now, you're going to open this door and let us walk out. If you do anything else, I will kill you and we'll get out anyway. Okay?" The leader nodded quickly, fear shining in his eyes. "Good. Do it," he commanded. The soldier finally snapped out of his fearful daze and got to work, slowly deactivating all of the traps in the building. Once he was done, the doors opened, revealing their way out. "Thank you," Aang told him sincerely before he knocked him out with the pommel of his sword.

"Come on, we need to get out of here!" Katara yelled at her teammates as she started running out with them not far behind. They finally got out the door and sighed in relief just as a group of soldiers came out of the shadows and aimed their guns at them, two apcs with machine guns attached appearing behind them for back up.

"Oh come on!" Sokka whined as they all got into a defensive position. One soldier climbed out of the apc and made their way to the front, making Zuko look closely at the soldier. Something seemed familiar about the way this person walked. They strode towards them with utmost confidence, like they feared absolutely nothing and knew that nothing could touch them. He had only seen that kind of walk from one person. _It couldn't be…_ he thought worriedly.

His suspicions were confirmed when the soldier took their helmet off, revealing themself to be...

"Azula," Zuko growled, surprised yet also not surprised to see that she was behind this plan to end the world. If there was one thing he knew about his sister, it was that she cared for no one but herself.

"There you are, Zuzu!" she exclaimed with a twisted smile, making Zuko get more angry as he realized that she was enjoying having him at gunpoint. "Took you long enough to get here."

Zuko shook his head in disbelief at her. "Why are you doing this, Azula? What good will it do for you to rule over a world that doesn't have any people left to rule?"

She simply laughed, making Zuko even more angry before he calmed himself down. He knew she was trying to get him angry to make him mess up, and he wouldn't allow her the privilege. "You think I'm doing this for myself?" She paused when he looked at her disbelievingly. "Okay, I might be doing it for myself as well, but I won't rule over this world until Father passes."

"What do you mean-" Then it hit Zuko like a ton of bricks. "Father is the one behind all of this?" he asked incredulously, knowing he shouldn't be too surprised, but being surprised all the same.

Azula shrugged and looked at her nails uninterestedly. "Yes. Does it matter? You could have joined us if you hadn't been such a weakling, but Uncle Iroh got to you. He made you weak, and now Father has deemed that you aren't fit to rule with us."

A low growl escaped his throat, making Azula smirk before he stopped himself. She was a master manipulator, and she knew just where to get him to lose control. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head at her. "I should have seen this coming, but somehow I didn't."

"You really should have," Azula agreed with a wicked grin. "After all, you would never do this. You're too soft to go through with such a thing. That's why Father chose me to carry out his plans."

Aang saw that this conversation wasn't going to go anywhere, so he decided to do something about it. Raising a hand to the air, he summoned a small thundercloud and threw the hand down, frying several of the guards and kicking up a large cloud of dust.

"Get them!" Azula roared over her coughing. His teammates covered their mouths and activated their camouflage before running away, knowing that if they stuck around for too long, they would die. They ran as fast as they could, aiming for the gate that they had come in. Fortunately for them, one of the soldiers had left it down for them.

"Come on!" Aang whispered loudly to them as even more sirens started blaring. "We need to get back to the safehouse!"

No one argued with him as they all got out of the fence and started running for the base, not daring to look back as the fortress became a frenzy of soldiers looking for them. Before long, they were finally back at the safehouse. Once they were all inside, Aang closed the door behind him and let out a sigh of relief.

"Well, at least we made it out of there," Suki attempted to point out the bright side of things.

Sokka nodded, still breathing heavily from their long run. "Yeah, but now we have to worry about the leader of an agency and his insane daughter coming after us. How do we know that they won't find our base? They might already know where our base is!"

Katara shook her head. "No, there's no way, Sokka. They don't have the technology to be able to find it. Only the Winds have technology that can detect our equipment. Right, Aang?" she asked as she turned to look at her love.

"Right," he agreed as he sat down at the table in the kitchen, feeling his adrenaline quickly leave him and tiredness take its place. "The only reason why we have that technology is because we've made sure to be one step ahead of everyone at all times in case anything ever happened." He looked over to Zuko who looked more than a little annoyed. "Are you okay, Zuko?"

Zuko finally snapped out of his thoughts and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm just a little surprised," he admitted. "I knew my sister could be crazy sometimes, but I didn't think that she or my father would be crazy enough to try something like this."

Aang smiled apologetically at him, not really knowing what to say. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. But we don't have any other choice now. They'll have to be taken down if we want to save the world." Then a thought came to mind. "If your father runs the agency, how do your people not know that he's not there."

After a moment of thought, Zuko simply shrugged. "He's there most of the time, but every once in a while, he'll go away on his 'business trips' as he calls it and won't come back for a week or two. I guess this is where he would go."

"Yeah, I guess so," Aang nodded in agreement thoughtfully. Looking around the room, he could almost see the tension that was between the four agents, reminding him of the feeling that he had gotten earlier. "Okay, what's going on with you guys?" he asked seriously.

Sokka gulped a little. "What do you mean?"

Katara decided to speak up. "Sokka, don't try to play games right now," she chided him. "You all are acting weird, and if we're going to get this mission done, we can't have anything that might throw us off."

Everyone was silent for a second before Suki decided to talk.

"Fine. There's been… kind of a mix up," she admitted, her eyes glued to her feet to try to hide her embarrassment.

Aang raised a brow at her. "What do you mean? What kind of mixup?"

The group again lapsed into a strange silence, making both Aang and Katara wonder what could get them all to be so anxious and quiet.

"Guys," Katara started seriously. "If we don't know what the problem is, we can't fix it. And we _need_ to fix it, because we can't have anything holding us back while we're trying to complete this mission and make it out alive."

Silence overtook the room for a good few moments before Toph couldn't take it anymore.

"I like Snoozles but I also like Sourpuss," she told Katara, taking her by surprise. "Snoozles likes me, but he also likes Fan Girl. Fan Girl likes Snoozles and Sourpuss. Sourpuss likes Fan Girl and Me."

"Sourpuss?"

"Fangirl?"

Zuko and Suki asked at the same time incredulously. Toph would have laughed a little had the situation not been so serious. Normally she would be the one to try to ease the tensions by making fun of someone further, but now was unfortunately not the time.

Katara and Aang tried to process this for a few moments, but found that all they could think about for the moment were the nicknames that Toph had selected for the group. "Sourpuss and Fangirl?" they asked Toph at the same time.

Toph rolled her eyes and kicked her feet up on the table, revealing her horribly bruised feet. "Focus here Twinkle toes and Sugar Queen. We need to figure this out."

"What's there to figure out?" Sokka asked stupidly. Everyone glared at him. "What?" he questioned them shrilly, feeling attacked by their gazes of disbelief.

Katara rolled her eyes at her brother and decided she had enough. Standing up, she looked them all in the eye with the most serious and frustrated look she ever had, making them all worry that she might try to beat them up. "Okay, you guys obviously have some issues to work out, so go work it out!" she ordered while pointing to the living room. "You have one hour to figure this out, or we'll decide who gets to be with who for you."

"You can't do that," Sokka argued with a cross look on his face.

"I can when you all are acting like children despite being adults!" she exclaimed in obvious annoyance. "Now go! Sort this out, or we'll sort it out for you!" The anger in her voice was enough to make her teammates run for the living room as they all sat down and began talking. Smirking a little, she looked over to Aang who was looking at her dreamily. "What?"

He snapped out of his stupor and shook his head. "Sorry, but that was… kind of hot," he admitted with a blush, making her smile.

Scooting closer, she smiled and leaned into his ear. "We've got an hour for them to figure it out. How about we go upstairs and have some more alone time?"

"Sounds good to me," he grinned and laughed as she grabbed his hand and dragged him upstairs. Meanwhile, the four friends were trying to figure things out, knowing that this needed to be settled once and for all.

"How did we even get in this mess in the first place?" Sokka wondered as he laid back in his recliner that he had insisted on keeping.

"You can thank Twinkle toes and Sugar Queen for that, Snoozles," Toph snorted while laying back against it with him. "But it doesn't matter now. What matters is that we figure this out." She 'looked' at Zuko. "So, to make things simpler, whoever you have stronger feelings for is who you should be with. Who do you like more, Sourpuss?" Toph asked him bluntly, not sure whether or not she wanted him to say her.

He thought about it and shrugged. "I know I still love Suki, but I know that I like you," he sighed. "But I guess love is stronger than 'like', so I guess Suki."

Toph registered that for a moment and realized that she was okay with that. If there was one thing Toph hated, it was when things got complex, and Sokka was far from complex. He was the most simple guy she had ever met. Nodding slowly, she turned to Suki. "What about you, Fan Girl?"

Suki thought about it for a few moments, still not really sure. She really liked Zuko, but she also liked Sokka. But, as she thought about it, she knew Zuko more and had more in common with him. Besides, she didn't really know if she could handle Sokka's stupidity, so she made her decision. "I like Zuko more."

Sokka was both a little relieved and disappointed, but he shrugged and decided to just go with it. "And I like Toph more."

"Okay, then it's settled. Nothing's changing, and we're all done with this. Agreed?" she asked all of them. They nodded, but then remembered that they couldn't see it.

"Agreed," they said perfectly in sync.

"Good," she sighed in relief, finally feeling at peace from their stupid… She didn't even know what to call it. "Now, let's go tell Sugar Queen and Twinkle Toes that we're done."

Sokka looked over and was surprised to see them not there, thinking that they would be watching them like hawks. "Where did they go?"

Toph read her surroundings and found them in Katara's room, heavily making out. At the rate they were going, if no one stopped them, they would do something that Sokka would kill Aang for. "They're… busy. I'll be right back," she promised before she ran quickly upstairs, leaving everyone in confusion.

Toph picked up her pace before she reached Katara's room, knowing that it was getting closer and closer to the point where they would lose control of themselves. "Katara? Aang?"

Katara and Aang stopped kissing when they heard Toph call them. By their _actual_ names. They knew something was up if Toph was saying their names. With one last kiss, they got up from the bed and walked over to the door, finding Toph with a disgusted look on her face.

"What's up, Toph?" Aang asked curiously, wondering what would make her say their actual names.

"We figured it all out, so you guys can come back now," Toph told them.

Aang and Katara looked at each other, clearly not wanting to be done with their 'alone time' just yet. "Um, okay. We'll be down in a few minutes," Katara promised before she tried to close the door, but Toph stuck her foot in, making it stay open.

"You two need to come down here," Toph insisted. "If you two had any more time kissing each other, you would have…" she trailed off, not wanting to say it but knowing that they had to hear it.

"Oh…" they both blushed heavily as they finally realized what she was hinting at, looking at each other nervously. They would have done… _that_. Did they want to do that? Sokka and Toph had done it, and considering that they continued to do it the day after, she could only assume that it felt good. Katara shook her head at herself. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about having sex. That would be for later when there wasn't a threat against the world. "Right," she finally composed herself. "Let's go."

Aang nodded in agreement and they all went back downstairs to find Suki and Zuko cuddled up together on the couch while Sokka waited for Toph to take a seat next to him on the couch he was now occupying. Aang and Katara decided to sit on the floor, knowing that if Katara sat on his lap in the recliner, it likely wouldn't end well.

"Okay, now that you guys worked out your issues, we need to figure out what to do," Aang told them as he thought about their situation. "We need to get back in there and destroy that machine, but how are going to be able to get in without anyone knowing?"

Sokka looked at him in disbelief. "We just need to use our suits again. No one will be able to see us, so if no one bumps into us, we'll be fine."

Aang nodded slowly. "Yeah, but I'm talking about getting in there. I doubt that the guards let that section of the fence stay. We'll need another way to get in." He thought about it for a moment when he realized something. "Wait, I'm an airbender!"

Everyone looked at him in confusion. "Yeah, so?" Sokka questioned curiously.

Katara rolled her eyes at him, having figured out what Aang was getting at. "He can lift us over the fence with his airbending, Sokka."

"Oh," Sokka said in understanding before he motioned for Aang to continue.

"Anyway," Aang laughed a little. "If we can make a distraction to keep most of the guards occupied, then I can get everyone in and shut this thing down." He looked over to Toph and smiled a little as an idea came to mind. "Hey Toph, how would you like to be our distraction?"

A wolfish grin spread over her face as she cracked her knuckles. "I'd love to, Twinkle Toes." Aang grinned back and nodded before he returned his attention to the rest of the group as he took out his schematics of the place.

"Okay, so here's the plan. Over here on the East side of the fortress, there's a large amount of rocks that Toph can use to cause a diversion. While she distracts the soldiers, we'll sneak in through the West entrance and make our way inside. You can get yourself inside, right Toph?" Toph nodded. "Good. We're going to need you when we destroy the machine."

"Sweetness," Toph smirked and leaned back with her hands behind her head.

"What about my Father and Sister?" Zuko spoke up.

Aang thought about it for a moment, not really sure what to do. On one hand, he wanted to take them alive and bring them back to their agency to be tried for betraying them, but on the other, he knew just how dangerous they could be. It would probably be better if they just killed them, he decided.

"When we see them there, we can try to take them alive if you want, but I know they're not going to let us take them in. They're probably going to fight until they die."

Zuko pondered this for a few moments. Of course he was a little hesitant. Even if they were evil, they were his family. He shook his head at himself. They obviously wouldn't hesitate to kill him, so why should he? "No, they need to go down. If we took them alive, they would just escape. They need to die," he told Aang confidently.

Aang nodded in acknowledgement. "Okay then, if you say so." He looked at all of his teammates around the circle. "We're only going to get one shot at this, so let's make this count. Are you guys ready?" They all nodded. "Good. Get your gear and meet me by the door. This ends tonight."

Everyone got up to get ready, knowing they would need to be well-prepared for such a mission. Aang sighed a little as he thought about all that had happened in the past few days. He certainly hadn't been expecting to have to go through all of this, but it was worth it since he got to meet Katara. Even if he died tonight, he would die happy, knowing that she loved him as he loved her.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

He nodded with a small smile, touched by her concern. "I'm fine. Just a little worried," he admitted.

She smiled and kissed his cheek. "Hey, don't worry about it. We're going to be just fine. Okay?" He was silent for a moment before he nodded again. "Good. Now come on. We've got a world to save." Taking his hand, she led the way over to the door and they waited for their friends to get there. Before long, they were all suited up and ready to go, though not without the battle jitters that had invaded their systems.

"Okay guys," Katara started as she interlaced her fingers with Aang's. "Here's the deal. We all know the plan, and we all know what we need to do. Are you guys ready?"

They all nodded, ready to go through with their mission, whether they lived or died.

"Good. Let's go!" she ordered and walked out the door. Sokka rolled his eyes at his sister. He would have made a comment about how bossy she was, but he knew now wasn't the time. Taking a deep breath, they all followed their leaders and made their way back to the base, knowing that this might be their last night.

* * *

Aang admired the beautiful night sky as he waited for Toph to get into position. Although he was nervous, he was also excited. This was their chance to save the world. Even if he had never expected to have to save it from the leader of one of the four agencies.

"Alright, Twinkle Toes. I'm in position," Toph told him over the earpiece.

"Good. Go ahead whenever you're ready," he instructed. Before long, there was a loud sound as a landslide of Earth took out a large section of the East part of the fortress. Looking at it, Aang was relieved to see most of the guards run off towards the diversion, giving them the perfect opportunity to sneak in.

"Showtime," he told his friends who nodded in response. Running over to the gate, they activated their camouflage and stood in a line, each person getting picked up by Aang and carrying them over the fence. Before long, they were all in there and followed Aang as he led the way towards the secret bunker that was near the back of the fortress. It was where the storm machine was kept, and where their mission would be completed, one way or another.

They crept their way through the grounds, expecting to see at least some guards, but most of them had moved to check out their diversion.

"Twinkle toes!" a voice whispered from his right. He looked toward the voice and recognized Toph's outline.

"Good. You made it," he sighed in relief. "Good job, by the way. You really made a mess over there."

She smirked smugly. "You know I did. Now come on, we've got a doomsday device to destroy!" she whisper-cheered. Aang laughed a little and nodded before leading them over to the spot that he had seen on the schematics. There appeared to be no entrance, but Aang knew better. Looking around, he noticed a tree stump that was somewhat out of place, as it was the stump of an oak tree. He shook his head at his enemies. They clearly weren't that smart if they thought professional spies wouldn't think of that. Taking a deep breath, he made his way over to the stump and flipped it open, revealing a stair ladder that led down into the bunker.

"Come on, guys," he gestured for them to follow him as he started climbing in. Before long, they were all inside and gasped in amazement as they witnessed the machine they had to destroy. It was huge. Spanning almost the size of the bunker, it appeared like any other machine that Aang had seen, but he could tell there was something different about it. It seemed to hum with power. Was it… was it charging up?

He shook his head. It didn't matter if it was charging up. All that mattered was that this thing got destroyed, and that was exactly what they were going to do. Leading the way, they made their path down to the machine, occasionally stopping to take out a guard and hide the body. Before long, they reached the platform that the machine was on, making Aang's mind think that something was up. It was easy getting to the machine. A little too easy. Almost like it was…

"Finally. You all took forever to get here," a voice said from behind them. They looked up behind them to see Azula, Ozai, and a group of soldiers behind them on the catwalk, peering down at them with malicious eyes. "And to think, I thought that you were Master spies," she mocked.

Zuko growled at her. "At least we aren't traitors. We didn't betray our agency, our _family_."

Azula clucked disappointedly at him. "Oh, Zuzu. Will you ever learn? Father and I never cared for you, and you shouldn't have cared for us. You are weak, just like Iroh. Now you and your friends will die, and no one will stop us from ruling the world."

"You're going down, Azula," Zuko threatened as he ignited his gauntlets with fire.

She smiled evilly and pointed at them. "Soldiers! Leave none alive!"


	9. Love and War

Chapter 9: Love and War

**Hey guys! Sorry for this quick ending and that the last chapter was kind of rushed, but although I was planning on doing ten chapters for this story, I decided that it would be better if I finished it up in this. So thank you guys for keeping up with this story and I hope you all enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

The soldiers jumped down from the catwalk as two groups of soldiers came from each side of the spies, ready to slaughter them all. This wasn't what any of them had really been expecting to happen, though they supposed they should have. No mission ever went perfectly, and a mission as important as this would certainly be no exception.

Time slowed down as Aang regained his bearings from his shock and watched his enemies move. One of the most important lessons he had learned from his agency: Defense is the best offense. The only way you can fight is if you stay alive, and with so many soldiers coming at him, he realized just how right they were. The only way there were all going to survive was if they were careful.

He snuck a quick look at his friends, somewhat proud to see that they were all ready for the battle. Although there was some fear in their eyes, he knew that they could do this. After all, they made it this far. Nothing was going to stop them now. And there was no way he was going to let anyone hurt Katara.

As the soldiers finally reached them, time went back to normal as the sounds of war clashed. The hundreds of soldiers, though seeming to be overwhelming, proved not as difficult as he had imagined. The advantage of being engulfed in a crowd of soldiers was that there were so many, it was hard to distinguish the difference between their fellow soldiers and their enemies. Although their camouflage was no longer working, they still were in black clothes in a dark room as well. Aang knew these advantages would help them survive.

One of the advantages, Aang had noticed, was that the soldiers who attempted to attack them usually ended up killing their comrades, making their work easier as they cut a path through the soldiers. Aang knew that this would be difficult, but he had faith in his team. After all, this wasn't his first fight surrounded by hundreds of soldiers.

"Watch out!"

Looking behind him in surprise, he saw that a soldier was attempting to sneak up on him, but had been caught red-handed. Aang made short work of him, stabbing him in the heart before he kicked him into a few soldiers, making a sort of domino line fall before his eyes.

Sokka and Toph were holding their own. Toph with sending boulders at her enemies and Sokka stabbed and sliced his way through the waves of soldiers. Occasionally working together. Sokka started to grow tired from their fight, but Toph had never felt more alive. Though she wasn't insane, she had to admit she was enjoying this. She was born for battle, and this was one of the most epic fights she had ever been in.

Katara sliced her way through the soldiers with her water to get back to Aang, wanting to be near him in case anything happened. She knew Aang was powerful, but she also knew that he was mortal. One wrong slice could have him on the brink of death, and she wanted to be close to him to heal him as quickly as she could.

"Are you okay, Kat?" he asked over the loudness of war that had surrounded them.

"I'm okay," she told him before turning her water into an ice spear and doing a large sweep around them, killing the guards that were struck by her spear and sending those behind them reeling backwards. "Just was hoping we wouldn't have to have this kind of fight."

"Yeah, me neither," he agreed as he started some lightning in his fingertips and shot soldiers while stabbing and slicing with his sword. "But the sooner we're done with these guys, the sooner we can destroy the machine."

The machine started up, making everyone pause in their fighting as they looked over to the source of the sound. Ozai stood at the center of the machine while Azula was busy fighting Zuko and Suki who had quickly burned their share of enemies to ashes. As they all watched, Ozai smiled triumphantly. "The machine has been activated! Once it is finished, it will create a storm deadly enough to end the world. Then, out of the ashes, a new world will arise! And I will be ruler of all!"

Unfortunately for him, Momo and Appa had sensed that Aang was in danger and came to help, crashing into him and sending him down to the ground. Appa morphed into a lion and growled at him, but he simply got up and into a defensive position. "You will die, too, you… animals!" he yelled defiantly before he proceeded to throw flames at them.

Aang smiled at the sight of his 'pets' and resumed the fight with more vigor, though he was starting to worry. That machine was activated, but he knew it was no simple feat to make a storm. Even with his power, it would take time, so he knew there was some time for him to help take out more soldiers.

"Why won't you just die, brother?" Azula asked annoyedly as she tried to shoot some lightning at him. He easily dodged it and sent some enhanced flames at her, but she just broke it like it was nothing. "Even with the best technology in the world, you are still a _weakling_, Zuzu," she tutted disappointedly. "I would have expected more, but you are just like Uncle. Weak!" she yelled as she shot a flame at him. "A pushover! Alone!"

Sokka tripped her from behind, sending her crashing to the ground as he and Toph had finished with their amount of soldiers. "No. He's not alone. He's got us," he told her as he attempted to stab her, but she grabbed his sword with her legs and sent him flying across the room. Toph would have laughed if it wasn't her boyfriend, and in doing so, Azula had made Toph very angry. Summoning the biggest boulder she could muster, she condensed it into body armor and got into a fighting position.

"You'll pay for that," she warned Azula, fury blazing in her eyes like a wildfire.

Azula just yawned uncaringly, obviously not threatened by Toph. A mistake she would soon pay for with her life, Toph thought. "If you say so." Not wasting another second, Toph launched forward at inhuman speed and tried to knock Azula off her feet, but Azula simply jumped out of the way, once again yawning. "Come on. I thought you _wanted_ to kill me," Azula smiled evilly as she made sure to keep an eye on her brother and his girlfriend.

"Oh, you're going to die alright!" Toph shouted as she charged her again. Azula smirked, ready to jump again, but this time, Toph didn't give her the chance. Not expecting Toph to hold her down, Toph sunk her into the ground before she rammed her head on, sending Azula flying back into the machine.

Meanwhile, the machine kept building with power. Aang recognized these sounds as the beginning of a thunderstorm. If he could stop it soon, it might only produce a small thunderstorm. But there were still many guards around them, and he didn't want to leave Katara to fight on her own. Everyone else was busy trying to take down Azula, but the storm was becoming larger and more dangerous by the second.

"How much time do you think before it becomes a doomsday storm?" Katara asked as she impaled a soldier and ripped the spear out before kicking him back into another soldier who had also been impaled.

"Not much longer!" he admitted as he stabbed another guard. There wasn't much time left, and there were still too many soldiers. Knowing what he had to do, he looked over his shoulder at Katara. "Get behind me." She did as she was told and fended the soldiers off with her spear while Aang took a deep breath, slowly opening his eyes to reveal a piercing white glow that made Katara gasp before his eyes returned to normal.

With one sweep of his hand, he knocked all of the remaining soldiers off of their feet with a strong gust of wind and locked them into place with earth. Once he was satisfied that they were incapacitated, he channeled some lightning into his fingers and spread it out in all directions, instantly frying all of the remaining soldiers. When the dust had settled, all that remained was Ozai and Azula.

They weren't sure who to go for. Azula was dangerous, but Ozai was the mastermind behind all of this. But, as Aang watched his friends start to get the upper hand on the insane firebender, he decided that the storm needed to be stopped.

"Come on! We need to shut this thing down before the storm gets worse!" he yelled to Katara who nodded and followed him to where Appa and Momo were tag teaming Ozai. When Appa wasn't swipe at him with his vicious claws, Momo was swooping down on him and attempting to rip his throat out with his razor sharp talons.

"Will you beasts leave me alone?" Ozai asked in annoyance as he attempted to shoot some fire at them, but Appa and Momo were fireproof. The only thing that was keeping him alive was the fact that he did well at dodging their strikes.

With this distraction, Aang attempted to sneak up on Ozai to quickly take his life, but Ozai's years of training as a spy had served him well, alerting him to his enemies' presence as they came to him.

Aang tried and failed to stab Ozai in the throat, but Ozai had anticipated this and stepped out of the way, much to the frustrated Peacekeeper's annoyance. Another slice sent Ozai back a few steps, but he still remained unscathed, smirking evilly.

"You can't kill me. I will destroy this world, and we will start anew. Without the likes of you!" he yelled as he shot some flames at Aang who cut them with his blade. "To stop me!" he finished gleefully.

However, he had forgotten that Aang wasn't alone. While he was distracted, Katara took the opportunity and snuck up on him, hoping to quickly take his life, but Ozai wasn't going to go down that easily. Hearing footsteps behind him, Ozai stopped his attack on Aang and turned around quickly to kick Katara away from him, making her land against the wall of the machine, slumped forward with her eyes closed.

Aang's fury had never been so strong. _She can't be. No, no, no. She can't be…_ He couldn't control himself anymore. Ozai had hurt the girl he loved, and he would be made to suffer. His eyes shut of their own accord before slowly opening to reveal the furious, blank white eyes of the Peacekeeper. Ozai gasped as he saw what he had unleashed, knowing his doom was guaranteed.

Everyone on the other side of the room stopped what they were doing as they watched the hateful Peacekeeper rise on a ball of air, which, with some other elements combined, began to make a thunderstorm of its own, flickering with unrestrained energy as the thunder rolled. Even louder than the storm that was in the machine.

"Uh oh," Sokka gulped as he saw his friend. _Wait a minute. Where's Katara?_ He became even more worried as he looked for her and saw that she was leaning against the wall. His breath caught in his throat, fearing the worst, but after a few moments, Katara's eyes slowly fluttered open, trying desperately to regain her bearings as the sound of Aang's personal storm grew until Ozai was surrounded by the clouds that Aang had created.

"Ozai!" The Peacekeeper snarled with all the fury that he could handle without completely losing it. "You will die!"

Ozai's eyes widened in fear and, in a poor attempt to run, made a dash for the exit. The Peacekeeper would not suffer him to live, and reached out with a tendril of pure electricity to bring him back before he sunk him down in Earth, leaving him completely defenseless.

"No! Please!" Ozai begged, seeing the unrelenting vengeance that had consumed the Peacekeeper. "Spare me!" Aang answered by flicking his hand down, sending a large bolt of lightning at him.

"No!" Azula yelled as she jumped and received the lightning bolt before crashing into the machine, some of the electricity going into the machine. The extra voltage became too much for the machine, and it slowly shut down until all that was left was the storm that it had created. The storm was released as Azula took her last breath, glaring hatefully at her brother before her eyes slowly dimmed.

Everyone stood there for a second, wondering what had just happened before the angry Peacekeeper and the storm met. Taking the storm's will as his own, he made it stronger until it started ripping the place apart. Ozai began to become hopeful, thinking that maybe his daughter's sacrifice was enough for his enemy, but that proved to be wrong when a large bolt of lightning struck him in his heart, leaving him gasping for air before his eyes finally dimmed.

Katara had finally regained her bearings and was looking around at the situation before her. Her friends were all staring at Aang, except for Toph who couldn't see, in shock, but that didn't stop Toph from having a shocked look on her face. Looking over at the raging storm, she knew they didn't have much time left before the storm took them if they didn't get out of there. But there was one problem: Aang was still _very_ angry.

"Aang!" Katara called up to him as the storm only grew stronger under his command. "Aang! We need to get out of here!" He didn't respond, his gaze fixed on the storm that he was concentrating on. Katara became worried. What if he was stuck like this? What if they couldn't get him out of… whatever this was? Her breathing became quick as her panic grew. "Aang! Please!" she nearly begged with tears starting to fall down, not wanting to think about the possibility of never having her love returned to her.

Her words finally reached him, breaking through his fury and straight to his heart, finally enabling him to let go of his anger. Taking a deep breath, the Peacekeeper slowly floated back to the ground, landing badly as the air dropped him onto his knees.

"Aang!" Katara yelled with tears of relief as she ran over to him and hugged him tightly, feeling very happy that he had come back to her.

A little groan escaped his mouth before he opened his eyes to look at her. "K-katara?" he asked tiredly, feeling all of his energy drained.

"Aang!" she whispered happily as she squeezed him tighter. Despite being completely out of it, he instinctively hugged her back, soaking in the comfort her presence gave him. Their hug would have continued if the storm hadn't gotten worse. A loud whining sound came from the center, reminding them that they needed to get out of there.

"Come on!" Sokka yelled at them as he gestured for them to follow. "We need to get out of here!"

Katara and Aang looked at each other and nodded before they started running, not daring to look back as the storm started to tear apart the bunker piece by piece. Making their way back up, they were relieved to see that what had remained of the soldiers had wisely fled, knowing that staying would be their doom.

Though they didn't have time to mess around, Aang couldn't help but be amazed at the sheer volume of the storm as it slowly rose to the surface. And it wouldn't have been as strong as it was if he hadn't gotten involved. But that worried him. Had he made it too strong? What if he had helped accomplish what he had meant to stop?

"Aang! Come on!"

He snapped out of his thoughts as he realized that he was just standing there and quickly ran to catch up with his love, wanting to make sure that he was around to make sure that nothing happened to her. Even if it cost him his life, he would make sure that she survived.

The storm kept submerging from the bunker, making even the Island itself start to shake from the power of the violent storm. Aang knew what was going to happen if they didn't get off the island, and he knew what they had to do.

"Come on!" he yelled to his friends as he grabbed Katara's hand and picked up his pace, practically dragging her with him. "We need to get to the jet before the island sinks!" Appa and Momo were fairly close by, following their master closely to make sure that he was alright.

"This just _had _to happen, didn't it?" Sokka grumbled to himself as he ran, feeling his energy start to drain. "Stupid Peacekeeper. Stupid corrupt Fire Agency guy. Stupid storm that's probably going to kill us."

Toph smacked him on the back of his head, making him run a little faster as he rubbed it. "Stay focused, Snoozles! You can complain all you want when we're out of here!"

Sokka would have shot back at her had the situation not been so dire, but he knew that now was not the time for it. Everyone continued running where Aang was leading, knowing that this was their only chance of survival as the storm finally fully came out of the bunker, making the waves become restless and lightning to strike at anything that it could touch.

It wasn't long before they reached the base where Aang had parked the jet, but he had forgotten where exactly he put it. One of the problems, he found, with jets that could be turned invisible was that he didn't have a scanner to be able to remind him where he had put it.

"Everyone split up! We need to find the jet!" Aang told them as he started fumbling around through the heavy torrents of rain that was pouring down.

"Really?" Sokka asked in annoyance. "You just _had_ to hide your only means of escape, didn't you?"

Katara smacked him on the back of the head this time and glared at him. "Later, Sokka! We have more important things to worry about!"

Letting out a sigh of frustration, Sokka nodded and started fumbling around blindly for the invisible jet, hoping that they would find it before it was too late. After a few minutes of searching, just as they were about to give up, Sokka's head crashed into something metallic, leaving a large bruise on his forehead.

"Ow!

Katara would have laughed if things weren't as desperate as they were. "Sokka found it! Let's go!" she yelled over the sounds of the raging storm. Aang quickly took out his keys and unlocked it, making it come back into view as they all ran for it.

Aang and Katara took the pilot seats while everyone else tried to find some seating in the back, eventually settling with the guys on the ground and the girls on the seats.

There was a problem, however. The jet was not responding as Aang hoped it would. The storm was causing magnetic interference with it, making the jet unable to start up.

"Come on!" Aang yelled as he tried to start it up, then again, then again, and again until he stopped in frustration. Knowing this was their last chance, he looked up to the skies and in his mind said, _Please God, help us get out of here._ Taking a deep breath, he attempted one last time and it started up, amazing him as the engine roared to life. He sat there in shock for a moment, feeling surprised that God had answered him so quickly.

"What are you waiting for?" Sokka shouted over the growing noises of the storm as it continued to rage across the island. "Let's go!"

Snapping out of his shock, Aang nodded and grabbed the controls, making the jet lift off the ground as he prepared to fly away as he thought of something. What if they left and the storm didn't stop at the island? What if it moved on to other islands? Maybe even to a large landmass? Knowing he couldn't let that happen, he moved the jet so that it was close enough for him to the storm.

"What are you doing?" Zuko asked over the wind and rain that the storm had kicked up, making the jet rock with every moment they drew closer. Aang didn't respond and concentrated his focus on the storm, taking a deep breath as he closed his eyes before opening them, revealing a flash of unearthly light as he made a motion with his hands out to it. After a few moments of concentration, the storm stopped moving and remained perfectly in place, making everyone look at him in amazement as slumped back against his chair.

"Okay," he said weakly as he started putting in coordinations for his agency. "Let's get out of here."

"How did you do that?" Katara asked in amazement as she watched the island start to sink from the full weight of the storm come down on it.

"It wasn't easy," he replied tiredly as he leaned back in his chair. "But the storm will stay there until it runs out all of its energy. No one will use that island ever again." The jet was silent as it zoomed off into the night, leaving the area as the last remains of the island finally sank underneath the sea.

* * *

The rest of the trip was silent as they made their way back. This mission had taken its toll on them, and they all spent their time reflecting on all that had happened. If not on the troubles they had, then in Katara's case, the trouble that there could be. Now that she and Aang were together, she knew his agency wouldn't approve. They might even attempt to kill her, and possibly Aang for not following his orders. But she knew this had to be done, even if it meant she died. Looking over to her left, she looked to see Aang fast asleep, smiling a little at how peaceful he looked. Taking control of the storm had worn him out, and she had decided that it would be best if he had his nap.

The smile that came to her face as she watched her love made her not be worried anymore. Just as she had felt when she had first seen his face, she was not worried then about her potential death. She had gotten to be with Aang, however temporary, and that would be enough for her if she had to die that day. That would always be enough for her.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team was talking quietly in the back, doing their best not to disturb their leaders.

"I can't believe we made it out of there alive," Suki whispered as she leaned against Zuko, feeling comforted with his arms tightly wound against her.

"I know. I really thought we were going to die in there," Zuko admitted with a shaky breath, recalling his fear that consumed him not too long ago. As he thought about his potential death, he was reminded of his sister and father. Although he was a little sad, he knew that this was for the best. If they were insane enough to try to wipe out the rest of the world just to rule it, then he knew it was for the best that they hadn't survived. Still, he felt a little alone. They were still his family, insane or not, after all. But he knew that he still had his friends and Iroh, so he knew that he would be okay.

"Yeah, me too," Sokka agreed with a little yawn as Toph slumbered against his chest, making him chuckle a little as her breath tickled his throat. "But we made it out and that's what's important."

They both nodded in response and remained silent, continuing their thoughts as they watched the night sky above them.

Before long, they were almost at their destination as Katara slowly woke up from a loud _beep!_ From the main control panel. Shaking her head a little, she looked at it and saw that they were about to land. "Aang," she shook him a little, hoping he would just wake up. Fortunately for her, Aang was a light sleeper and woke up instantly.

"Huh?" his eyes shot open as he stared at the beautiful girl before him, making him amazed that such an amazing girl like her could ever love him. "Hey, Kat," he greeted her with a yawn. "What's going on?"

"We're almost at your base," Katara informed him with a soft smile, feeling her nervousness start to get her again, but she shrugged it off. Whatever happens would happen, and she knew that there was little to nothing she could do about it.

Aang slowly nodded and watched as the jet reached the top of the mountain, hovering above the hangar doors as it opened to let them in. Taking her hand in his, he gave her a reassuring squeeze and looked into her eyes, making Katara surprised that she knew what he was saying to her. _Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you_. She nodded, knowing that he would do anything to protect her.

The jet finally landed in the hangar as the group opened the door to find several Winds ready for them.

"Aang!" Gyatso called with a happy smile, relieved to see his ward alive and well. "I take it you completed your mission?"

Aang smiled and walked up to give him a hug. "Yes we did." He looked down before he pulled away to look Gyatso in the eye. "But we couldn't have done it on our own."

Gyatso looked puzzled. "What do you mean, Aang?" Looking back at the jet, Zuko and Suki had stepped out, but the other three had wisely remained inside.

"Come on out, guys!" he called them as he braced himself for his fellow Agents' reactions as Sokka, Toph, and Katara slowly exited the jet, making the Wind agents around him gasp before getting into a defensive position. Gyatso simply remained still, no emotion on his face as he looked at the newcomers.

"Who are these people, Aang?" Gyatso finally questioned him, curiosity gleaming in his eyes.

Aang took a deep, shaky breath before he walked over to them. "These are the other agents that were also sent on the mission," he explained before walking over to stand next to Katara. "And this is 'The Wave'.

One of the Wind agents gasped and glared at him, which Aang recognized as one of the members of the council. "You were charged with ending her, not bringing her back here! She needs to die!" he yelled. "Kill her! Now!"

"No!" Aang yelled back as he took Katara's hand in his, making everyone, including Gyatso gasp. "She didn't do anything wrong. Or, at least not on purpose," he amended. "It was a mistake." He looked at his love and she understood what he was asking of her.

She nodded and moved up a little to address them all, feeling a little fear settle in her as she saw the many weapons that could easily take her life, but she shook it off and spoke. "Look. I know that I attacked one of your agents, and I am truly sorry," she told them, catching them by surprise. "It was a mistake. I was on a mission and we were being hunted by enemy soldiers. I wasn't expecting any friendlies to be nearby and made the mistake of assuming that it was an enemy soldier." She took a deep breath and let go of Aang's hand before sinking to her knees in front of them, making Aang worried. "If you still wish for my death, then so be it. I won't stop you."

The Wind agents stood there in utter shock, not expecting this girl to apologize, let alone surrender herself, but Aang wouldn't have it. He wouldn't let them harm the girl he loved, even if it cost him everything.

"She's not our enemy!" Aang argued as he saw the unsure expressions on their faces. "She made a mistake, and she feels horrible about it." He turned to his mentor and for all purposes father figure. "Gyatso, I love her. She didn't mean to attack us, and she deeply regrets it. Please," he almost begged with the saddest eyes Gyatso had ever seen him, even more sad than when he had thought about his deceased parents.

Taking a deep breath, Gyatso looked from his charge to the young lady before him before he looked back at Aang. "Very well. She may live."

The other council member looked at him incredulously. "Hold on just a moment-"

"No! This is not up for debate!" Gyatso interrupted him before he could go any further. "We might be a council, but I am the oldest council member. I have the power by the right of our founders to make this decision." He turned back to his ward with a soft smile. "She may live."

Aang sighed heavily in relief and hugged Gyatso. "Thank you," he murmured, completely relieved to know that Katara could live. He wouldn't have let her die, but he had been prepared to flee from his agency.

Gyatso gave him a smile before he turned back to address the Winds' who had joined to see how things would turn out. "The betrayer has apologized and explained herself. Because of this, the alliance between the Winds and the Water Agency is revived. We are once again friends," he told them before looking over to Katara with a smile.

Katara smiled back and hugged him. "Thank you, Gyatso."

"It's no problem, my dear," he assured her with a chuckle as he hugged her back. "It would have been a waste of a secret message if you had died in the end, wouldn't it?"

Katara gasped as she pulled back to look at him. "You were the one who sent the message?"

Laughing again, he nodded as he looked at her. "Yes I did. Your father saved my life years ago, and I promised to repay him one day. Just tell him that we are now even," he joked, making her and Aang laugh a little.

"Oh, don't worry, I will," she promised before she turned to look at Aang. He was smiling happily, feeling on top of the world that he didn't have to betray his agency or lose the girl that he loved. Without another word, Katara walked over to him and pulled him into a loving kiss, making him smile against her lips as he kissed her back.

"Oogies!" Sokka shuddered as he covered his own eyes. "Will you two quit it?" Katara smirked against Aang's lips and kissed him even more passionately just to get back at her brother, who felt puke rising at the back of his throat. "Whatever," he grumbled before his mood brightened again. "Let's celebrate!"

"He is right!" Gyatso agreed as he looked at his fellow agents. "These people have saved the world. Now we must celebrate! Go prepare a feast! They will be honored for completing their mission!" Everyone cheered as they walked out of the hanger, ready to have some fun and relax after a long, stressful mission.

* * *

A few hours later, it was late evening and everyone was enjoying themselves at the celebratory party that the Winds had put on for them. Everyone except for Aang, that was. Not that he didn't like to party, but he needed a little time to himself. After everything that had happened, he needed some silence at his favorite place in the world: The top of the agency. There he could breathe in the fresh mountain air and contemplate his thoughts. It had been his favorite ever since he was a kid, where Gyatso had shown him. And it had the most beautiful view of the night sky he had ever seen.

"Hey."

Turning around quickly, he was surprised to see a smiling Katara come walking up to him. "Is everything okay?" she asked in concern.

"Of course it is," he responded with a big smile as he kissed her cheek, making her unwillingly blush. "We saved the world!" Glancing at her, he smiled and kissed her lips. "Besides, you're here with me, so how could it get any better than this?"

"Oh shut up," Katara shoved him playfully, unable to hide the wide smile on her face. They both chose to sit down and look up as the stars appeared in the night sky, reminding him of how much he loved being up there. At how high up they were, it felt like they could reach out and touch them.

"So much has changed, hasn't it?"

He looked over at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged and leaned her head on his shoulder, feeling completely at ease with him while watching the night stars. "Well, I never thought I would wind up here." She laughed a little. "I thought that you would end up killing me, not telling me that you love me."

He laughed a little and kissed her head. "I'd much rather kiss you than kill you," he joked, making her laugh even more before she sighed in contentment.

"That's not all that I mean though," she told him as she looked up at the stars. "Me and you… we're different. Our agencies don't usually intermingle romantically."

"We're not the only ones," he reminded her, alluding to her brother and their friends.

"I know," she assured him with a small smile. "But that's just what I mean. With us all being together, we're starting something new. Something that the world's never seen before."

He smiled and took her hand in his, enjoying the soft feeling of her skin on his. "Something _better_," he added with a content sigh. "Just as the world grows, we need to grow too. The last thing the world needs to be is divided, and us being together is proof of it. Everything is better when we all stand together."

"Yeah, we are, aren't we?" she asked with a yawn as she felt herself being lulled to sleep by their perfectly synced heartbeats. "I love you, Aang," she murmured as her eyes drooped closed.

He kissed her head and felt his eyes close as well. "I love you too, Katara." And as they slowly fell into their slumber, they knew that as long as they stuck together, as long as the agencies learned by their example, that everything would be okay. They both finally fell asleep, content with the fac that the world would prosper because of their love.

* * *

**Hey guys! Just wanted to apologize if this seemed rushed at all. It honestly might have been, I can't quite tell anymore, but I hope you guys enjoyed the story and I'm looking forward to getting started on some other projects of mine. Starting with the continuation of Late Night Drinks! If you enjoyed that story, keep an eye out for it, because I will be continuing it soon. Anyway, thank you guys for reading and the reviews and I'll talk to you all later!**


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